- Commercial buildings at Marakiz and Class-III shopping centres will be allowed to construct additional floor on rooftop.
Capital Development Authority (CDA), in order to accommodate the commercial users and businesses, have started mulling the idea of amending building by-laws and allow the commercial buildings at marakiz and Class III shopping centres to add one more floor to their buildings.
A six-member committee has been constituted in this regard, comprising Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning director, Regional Planning director, director Estate Management-II, director Structure (services), director Building Control and Cost Accountant.
Seven meetings have already been held in this regard.
On the directions of Supreme Court, the Building Control Section (BCS) till now sealed 1088 out of total 1695 houses which were being used for commercial purposes.
Due to this operation, a large number of commercial users have started vacating residential areas and moving toward commercial areas and marakiz.
However, there is a lack of renting registrar or policy in the federal capital. The commercial users as well as residential users are suffering from high rents as the demands of the owners of commercial buildings have skyrocketed since the start of the operation.
“There are 0.15 million commercial users in the federal capital while there are only 70,000 commercial spaces available,” said a BCS official.
Therefore, the civic agency is planning to give permission to the private owners of commercial areas and markets to build another floor to accommodate users.
If the civic body succeeds in executing this plan, it would make things easier for the commercial users in finding space in the posh sectors and markets.
“The agency is still working on the proposals to give permission to the owners of property for the construction of new floors in commercial areas,” said an official of planning wing.
However, if the big-bosses of civic agency accept the proposal and charge the rent according to per square foot on a yearly basis, it would, then, prove to be a remarkable project.
“There are several recommendations under review like CDA’s onetime fee for permission or a yearly fee for licensing them,” said Shafi Marwat, director Building Control Section (BCS).
When contacted, Mayor and Chairman CDA, Sheikh Anser briefed Pakistan Today that the authority offered the chamber of commerce and private business community that if they want, then the authority may amend the rules, regulations and by-laws to facilitate the commercial markets.