The Indian Express         15.10.2013

VMC adds new clauses for builders after twin building crash

The collapse of a low-rise residential colony in Vadodara's Tandalja area late last month has heightened the level of concern within the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, which has now made it mandatory for real estate developers to fulfil the new clauses before initiating building projects.

This would make it difficult for city builders to get fresh clearance, and in turn delay projects of around Rs 500 crore that are already in the pipeline. Apart from the requirements, which include report of test on soil samples collected from the site and reports from structural engineers and architects working on the project, newer clauses have been added by the civic body that makes it mandatory for builders to get projects executed by a qualified civil engineer and a supervisor who are registered with VMC, the new resolution also requires the developers to submit report on their own qualification in order to get the project cleared. Members of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association in Vadodara have raised objections to this, while maintaining that this might affect projects that are currently in the pipeline.

While VMC has only sought qualification of builders, it has not clarified if the builder requires to be a technical person.

"VMC has sought the builders' qualification. It is not clear if the civic body expects builders to be technically qualified too," CREDAI president Vadodara, Vipul Thakkar said.