Model Municipal Law � Role for architects

MCD is reviewing building byelaws with help of USAID
as per a news report of 12.11.03 that spoke also of
Council of Architecture taking up with MCD the issue
of sanctioning of building plans requiring Architects,
not Junior Engineers as is currently the case in MCD.
MCD Commissioner was quoted saying, while admitting
that several representations had been received from
the Council, ?There are not enough architects in the
city to hire?.

According to a report in HT today MCD is creating a
list of 1500 licensed architects in consultation with
the Council of Architecture. 10 to 12 architects will
be empanelled in each of the 134 municipal wards to
measure, for a fee of Rs 150 to Rs 1000 depending on
the size of the property, covered area for assessing
property tax under the new tax regime. They will also
collect cheques and deposit the same with MCD. MCD
Chief Town Planner is working on guidelines to
calculate the covered area.

Not being an architect (except by qualification
acquired two decades ago) and a Planner outside the
mainstream professions for many years, I seem to have
missed something important somewhere. I wonder if
Planners are the best to set out guidelines for
building area calculations and if Architects,
especially when there aren?t enough to hire to
sanction building plans and we have to turn to USAID
for amending byelaws, might not be wasted on measuring
areas and handling cheques. Can someone clarify if our
progressive MCD Commissioners ideas are consistent
with boundaries of professional services.

previous posts ? model municipal law
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/13
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/9




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