Building Regulatory Authority urgent

The Building Regulatory Authority, made mandatory in Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) eight years ago, must be urgently formed to ensure building safety in the country, said leading engineers and architects at a discussion yesterday.
Public Works Department (PWD) and Japan International Cooperation Agency organised the discussion on the Rana Plaza building collapse and role of professionals in ensuring building safety at the former's premises in the capital.
To prevent overlapping of building approval authorities' decisions, the regulatory body must be made the sole authority to permit building construction after examining architectural, structural, foundational and electromechanical drawings, said a PWD executive engineer, Md Mafizur Rahman.
Pointing out multiple safety lapses in Rana Plaza's construction, he said the regulatory body must issue an “occupancy certificate” based on clearance from the architect and structural, electromechanical and supervising engineers that the building is habitable.
Moderating the discussion, noted civil engineer Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury said the regulatory body could authorise some competent local bodies, municipalities for instance, to control building construction approvals at local level.
But those must be duly empowered with officials of the regulatory body and adequate technical personnel, he said.
BNBC also has provisions making it mandatory to hold the architect and civil, supervising and foundation engineers accountable. But the government has not put those in place.
Now four authorities -- Rajuk and Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi development authorities -- give building construction approval in the four divisional cities after examining only the architectural layout. In the rest of the country, there is no authority to control building construction.
Dr Khondaker Showkat Hossain, secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, said the entire budget for Housing and Building Research Institute was meant only for employees' salaries and allowances and had no allocation for research.
State Minister for the ministry Abdul Mannan Khan said in most cases code and laws were flouted and low quality materials used only to satisfy the owner's greed but exposing both owners and occupants to potential dangers.