PRAKRITI PATHAK

Along with rapid urbanisation and vertical expansion, the valley has been witnessing a sprout of high-rise buildings in the form of housing projects and apartments. Lately, hordes of corporate buildings and business complexes are also being added to this list. But the question to be raised here is — Are such business and corporate complexes legally constructed, or do they need to be put under the scanner for irregularities? The answer is that many of them are simply taking advantage of legal loopholes and bribing or forcing their way to construction.

“We are aware of haphazard construction of such buildings and they are clearly overruling building bylaws and regulations,” laments Dr Uttar Regmi, division chief of Urban Development at Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). According to him, business owners are more

inclined to grab profits rather than assuring quality and security in their constructions. Officials of KMC accept that monitoring of such buildings is conducted only when a complaint is filed and even then, it goes on at a snail-like pace. “It is high time that a special mechanism is formulated and implemented to stop this chaotic growth of buildings,” says Regmi, adding that it is not as if there are no monitoring policies. There are several policies formulated to check this misconduct, but they lack in terms of implementation, and are simply confined to paper, as is true for every sector of Nepal.

Kathmandu Declaration 2011, which includes the Agenda for Reforms proposed by KMC, includes 12 points under Buildings and Urbanisation. It states that the electronic details of the buildings constructed by overruling laws will be disclosed; unscrupulous builders will be warned first and then penalised if they continue building against law even after repeated warnings; construction of such buildings will be stopped, corrected or even destroyed, and that house pooling plan will be implemented to renovate inner core area of valley, et cetera. But surprisingly, even officials are not hopeful about the implementation of formulated agenda. “Even if five points out of the 12 could be fulfilled in reality, then there would be great transformation in this chaotic urbanisation,” says Regmi.

According to a highly placed source at KMC, almost 70 to 80 per cent of the total corporate buildings and business complexes are constructed without adhering to all requirements. “Business complexes like United World trade Centre (UWTC) at Tripureshwor were also found guilty of bypassing laws. Once, KMC even took action against it but after UWTC coughed up a hefty sum to political parties, it was required to pay just Rs 100,000 as fine and later was given a clean chit by government. Such practices lower our morale and make us rethink while taking action against entrepreneurs,” says the official at KMC seeking anonymity, adding that such practices not only encourage other builders to follow in the illegal footsteps but also give them the message that bribes speak more than the law. According to officials, business owners frequently try to lure officials with huge amounts of money so that their constructions are not strictly monitored.

During construction itself, builders are constantly seeking for loopholes. For example,residences are allowed to cover 70 per cent of the land, whereas business complexes have land coverage only up to 50 per cent. Thus, entrepreneurs register the buildings as residences and turn them into business complexes. “We do not get any blueprints from KMC, which makes it difficult for us to supervise constructions. They are also guilty of indirectly encouraging entrepreneurs to turn residential building into business complexes,” says Dr Bhai Kaji Tiwari, urban planner at Kathmandu Valley Town

Development Implementation Committee, adding that such a trend is on the rise. Though such business complexes and corporate buildings are beneficial in creating employment and opportunities, they are also cheating government by reneging on revenue. Complexes like Alpha Beta at Baneshwor have already had their property sealed but are still under operation. “This shows how weak the policies are,” states Tiwari. He blames KMC as being the hub of irregularities, for its staffs are known to provoke builders to conduct irregularities during construction. They disclose their working procedures and are handed over handsome bribes in return, so they turn a blind eye to the illegalities of such skyscrapers. Tiwari goes on to imply that all people involved in monitoring — be it KMC employees or the police or his own staff — are negligent in their duties and are taking bribes. “But once a complaint is filed is against some construction, there are less chances of financial irregularities from civil servants,” adds Tiwari.

The irony is that even buildings around KMC are being constructed without following rules and regulations. But KMC is obliged to be a mute spectator. Most such buildings are cheating in parking spaces. For instance, area allocated for parking is used for shops which ultimately increases Floor Area Ratio (FAR), from which entrepreneurs obtain maximum profit as they are allowed to add to the building’s height in ratio to FAR. “During inspection, we found buildings build according to blueprint, but later on the owners modified it as it best suited their business interests,” says Regmi, citing that regular supervision is constrained due to less manpower.

Besides such laws being bypassed , KMC is also suffering from inclusion of inner core areas into overall urbanisation. An example of this is the Central Jail at Sundhara, which is in the process of being shifted since it is surrounded by high rise buildings.

source: Pathak, Prakiti(2011),"Commercial‚ complex and corrupt:, The Himalayan Times, 17 July 2011