‘There is no regular inspection of sites in Bengaluru’
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Bengaluru is growing exponentially and in the process of taking care of the housing needs of its people the city has literally turned into an under-construction site. What is unfortunate is that while finding solutions to the housing needs of the people, lives are sometimes lost. Its worse when an accident takes place because the construction is illegal or the building material used is substandard.
It is obvious that illegal buildings cannot come up without the the knowledge of the officials concerned. Builders responsible for illegal constructions are usually hand in glove with government officials. The most important part of a project is its execution. Checking the structural design and the building plan is important but a project will never be safe unless executed properly, no matter how good the plan looks on paper. To ensure proper execution, periodic checks are required during construction. Officials must check that the building is coming up according to the plan sanctioned and is not violating norms. These inspections will also take care of quality control checks. Its also important to ensure that the construction policy of the developer is standard. But there are no regular inspections of sites in Bengaluru.
It is unfortunate that 60 to 70 per cent of the area on the city’s outskirts is being developed either illegally or with several violations. I am not even getting into the details of the building bylaws. The illegalities here are more serious in nature. In many buildings, the National Building Code is not followed. Many unorganised developers, with not enough understanding of construction and hardly any prior experience, do not follow the basic principles of construction. People pay with their lives as many go about cutting corners to cut costs. As a builder, I can say that nobody wants to put up a building that will collapse. Sometimes certain conditions like that of the soil, affect a building. Such issues can be effectively tackled by employing qualified professionals.
But until the private construction companies decide to adhere to the standards and co-operate with officials, it will be extremely difficult for the government to handle this matter. If people are unwilling to comply, the government will never be able to ensure safety with the help of a few officials. The public and the private parties must come together to beat the menace of unsafe construction.
— The writer is founder president of the National Association of Realtors
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