Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate of the CDA has marked 257 commercial and 148 industrial buildings as dangerous and not emergency ready. The E&DM recently wrote to the Building Control Section warning about the “alarming state of affairs” and “poor arrangements” in many plazas and centres of Islamabad in case of man-made or natural calamities.

Blue Area, the hub of commercial activities in Islamabad has scores of plazas that are decades old and are rife with violations of building laws and illegal alterations.

The letter written by Additional Director E&DM Ammaduddin Muhammad, further warns that the manner in which electric wiring and other gas utilities are dealt with is haphazard and negligent and in case of an emergency, will prove life-threatening. The CDA is all set to issue final notices to more than 257 commercial and industrial entities in the capital on the non-compliance of CDA Building Standards for Fire Prevention and Life Safety. First and second notices to this effect have already been issued to all the parties.

Furthermore, the D&EM unit had demanded five cars from the CDA. These cars were bought as vehicles to be used by the unit’s rescue and emergency staff. The high-ups of the CDA rid the vehicles of lights and cylinders and started using them for personal purposes.

In 2011, the CDA Board approved five more cars for the Building Control Section so that its personnel could be facilitated in implementing the Building Safety Codes 2010.

However, the sanctioned cars are nowhere in sight. The Additional Director BCS, has written a letter in this regard to the Director Admn and demanded his attention on the pressing issue.

In another letter written by the E&DM on August 31 the importance of enforcing the CDA Building Standards for forwarding prevention and life safety 2010 in embassies, high commissions, and offices of the various NGOs in the diplomatic enclave has been stressed.

“The fire prevention, fire protection and life safety arrangements are nonetheless essential in these premises, where highly regarded and valuable diplomats are living with their families and hundreds of staff during office hours,” it says.

The civic authority plans to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate it in this regard. The E&DM also offers on-job training and real time drills to the staff and personnel of these embassies.

The letter also reads that this venture will set “new trends of excellence, brilliance and illustrations from the host country i.e. Islamic Republic of Pakistan”.

The E&DM requested the BCS to remove violations, alterations, modifications in the Blue Area and main centres, posing threat to residents, obtain structure stability certificates on quarterly basis, instal the required amount of emergency exits, make sure that the load bearing capacity of buildings does not exceed the original approved plan.