In an apparent bid to tighten screws on the builders lobby violating parking norms, Town and Country Planning Minister, Vijai Sardesai on Thursday mulled post occupancy audit by the planning bodies to verify whether the builders have put the parking space for the intended use or not.
MARGAO:
The Minister has also emphasised on the need that builders seek assistance of specialised agencies in respect of construction of basements and vertical growth of buildings.
“The main problem of cities such as Margao is parking. Parking in these cities is only for name sake. There’s no actual parking even though builders show basement for parking,” Sardesai told the media after inspecting the mudslide at an ongoing construction site on Thursday.
To tide over this problem, the TCP Minister said he will ask the SGPDA to conduct a post occupancy audit of buildings to ensure the parking is indeed available to the people as per the plans. “There are instances where builders have made money by selling space meant for parking. The PDA will coordinate with other agencies such as the Margao municipality to conduct the post occupancy audit,” he said.
Strongly rooting for the post occupancy audit concept, the Minister said that failure to bring in these regulations will result in collapse of buildings and violation of parking space.
“We are regularising illegal constructions. All laws are meant for the common man. Let there be some regulation for the builders,” he said, while stressing on the need to tighten screws on the builders.
On the new concept of vertical growth of buildings, Sardesai said, “We need specialised agencies to certify construction of vertical buildings as per the National Building laws. Basement construction is a new concept in Goa as vertical growth of real estate has come in the state. It appears that both the PDA and the civic authorities are unaware of the expertise vis-à-vis basement and vertical constructions. In fact, Wednesday night’s incident has opened a can of worms. The building rules need to be strengthened,” he added.
