Credai forms committee to go into building norms

Coimbatore, August 20, 2014 – The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), Tamil Nadu is working on the development of standard operating procedures that its members will be expected to adhere to in their construction projects, according Rajesh B Lund, President, Credai, Coimbatore.

The initiative comes in the wake of the recent collapse of the under-construction 11-storey apartment building in Moulivakkam, near Chennai, that led to the death of nearly 60 persons. Speaking in Coimbatore on Wednesday, Lund said following the building collapse nearly seven weeks back, Credai Tamil Nadu had formed a team of experts from Anna University and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to go into the cause of the accident.

He said the association is also working on getting ‘standard operating procedures’ developed by a team in Chennai. This would be circulated among all Credai members in the State for implementing in their construction activity. He expected the guidelines to be ready in two months. Outlining some of the topics to be covered in the exercise, he said it would go into issues such as soil testing and enlisting the agencies to be entrusted with the work, the seismic zone of each city for development, how to supervise construction work, and so on. Asked whether Credai would insist on the developers getting insurance cover, including the liability of the buyers, (buyers in the Moulivakkam project had paid out the bulk of the money to the developer as the building was close to completion), Lund said “the insurance company would only compensate the cost of the project” in such cases. There was “no provision” where the insurance company would cover the buyer.

It might now become mandatory for projects to get insurance cover before banks extend loans. The guidelines in the works will also go into the issue of protecting the developers as well as buyers.

He pointed out that a plethora of agencies were involved in construction work — the architects who design the buildings, the soil-testing agencies and structural consultants, the project management team that is put in place to oversee the work, and so on. It is important to consider the capability of promoters in executing projects. All these issues are being looked into while drafting the guidelines, he said.

He said the Credai Tamil Nadu has expressed a desire to be associated in the Smart City project, for which Ponneri, close to Chennai, has been identified. While the government would take up infrastructure development, private developers would have the opportunity to be involved in construction activity. He was not able to comment on the size of the business opportunity available as the project was still at a very preliminary stage. Business Line