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Engineers say new UDA regulations detrimental to national interest
View(s):Significant amendments are to be introduced to the Urban Development Authority (UDA) Act to meet the challenges in modern development while providing more legal teeth for land acquisition and mixed development projects, especially the construction of high-rise buildings, official sources said.
While the new regulations will be gazetted soon to replace the UDA’s 34-year-old approval, planning and building regulations pertaining to high-rise apartment projects, there is opposition from engineers who say they have either not been properly consulted on the changes or there was insufficient time to make representations.
The Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) has strongly objected to the UDA’s attempts to gazette these regulations without entertaining representations of the engineering fraternity on the final draft. In a letter to the UDA chairman, the IESL has raised its objections against bringing new regulations hurriedly without giving adequate time for engineers to express their views on the final draft.
The engineers noted that the duration given to them to review and comment on the regulations was only eight days which was hardly sufficient to study a 159-page draft document, which they considered as a important document bearing national interest at large.
The IESL has requested an extension of the time allowed for comments to six weeks and to offer the engineers a presentation by a senior UDA officer on the content of the draft regulations within two weeks.
But UDA Director General N. P. K. Ranaweera has declined the request as these draft regulations were already discussed thoroughly with all the stakeholders including the IESL.
In a letter to the UDA chairman, IESL President K.P.I.U. Dharmapala strongly denied that IESL or its representatives were involved in any kind of consultations, as claimed by the UDA, during the drafting process of the proposed new UDA regulations.
“…. we have noted that the current draft thatthe UDA claims as the final and about to be gazetted, contains technically erroneous issues; some are inappropriate,
not transparent and detrimental to the development of the country.
In general, it is our opinion that, this draft fails in properly addressing the engineering aspects (under structural, building services, environmental, traffic, planning etc) which are considered as mandatory requirements to be fulfilled in an important regulation of this nature (we do not wish to elaborate on these technical aspects in this letter but IESL would welcome any opportunity to discuss those in detail later on your request),” the letter said.
It also said IESL representatives to the UDA main planning committee had expressed IESL’s concerns and objected to key regulations as and when the development plans were presented at the meetings.
| UDA arbitrarily takes over Peliyagoda cemetery also Hard on the heels of Urban Development Authority (UDA) plans to acquire the Muttiah Road land on which the Colombo University’s women’s hostel stands, the UDA now has taken over the Peliyagoda crematorium and burial grounds. At a recent Peliyagoda Urban Council meeting, member K.D Chandraratna raised the issue and Chairman Ananda Pushpakumara confirmed that the site had been acquired. The chairman said the reason given was that the Peliyagoda market was located close by, but no alternative land had been allocated for the cemetery. Instead the residents have been told to make use of the Kelaniya burial grounds and the crematorium which is located some three kilometers away. The Peliyagoda UC already has problems with its lands as several of them have been illegally acquired by way of forged deeds and also does not have alternative land to offer. | |