MUMBAI: The BMC will rank builders and architects on the basis of their completed projects and share the information in the public domain in about a month’s time to help property buyers make an informed choice while choosing a home.
At present, buyers usually have to go by the public perception of builders and architects while purchasing properties. They have little option but to accept the builders’ and architects’ claims about their past projects. Neither do they have access to any mechanism that can tell them if all the rules were followed during construction.
Now, the BMC has decided to grade them according to their work. For instance, builders-architects who stick with their first submitted plan, follow all rules and complete a project on time will get a higher grade. Others who changed building plans after starting work and introduced changes that delayed projects just to make more profits can be compared against them since they will be graded lower.
An officer said civic officials are working on the entire gamut of criteria that they need to include in the grading system. After finalizing the required standards, they will put it on the building proposal page of the civic authority’s website within a month. “We will grade them according to compliance of the regulations,” said civic chief Ajoy Mehta.
The BMC will not grade builders-architects on their earlier records. They will do it on the basis of ongoing projects after they approach them for the mandatory occupation certificate of buildings.
The need for grading was felt after it was noticed that in the past, other approved plan details were missing. Officials suspected there were some violation or the other in all the projects but could not establish it.
Now, the grading system will ensure that the background of every builder and architect is known to buyers. “It’s a good initiative. But rating architects is complex. Builders hire established architects to design buildings, and another set to deal with the files in the BMC. On record, the BMC identifies architects dealing with them. Then how is BMC going to rate the designing architects who plan the building projects?” asked Shirish Sukhatme, of PEATA (Practising Engineers, Architects and Townplanners Associations).