World Bank report spurs LDA to outsource buildings inspection

LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has decided to contract out inspection of buildings and subsequent issuance of certificates after completion of residential, commercial and industrial structures.

The development took place following the World Bank’s report titled Doing Business 2020, in which the leading financial institution evaluated 190 economies on ease of doing business through nine potential indicators.

The report ranked Pakistan 112^th in the world – compared to neighbouring India’s 27^th position – in the ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’ category.  While the ranking is a considerable improvement from last year’s 166^th place in the same category, the LDA still decided to outsource the task of inspecting buildings upon completion.

“We have decided to outsource inspection segment of completed residential, commercial and industrial building structures falling within territorial jurisdiction (controlled area) of the LDA. This is the area where Pakistan ranks at 112 among 190 countries,” said a senior LDA official.

He added that the authority planned to continue with the procedure related to receipt of applications for issuance of building maps/construction. However, the inspection part would not be carried out by the LDA’s town planning wing anymore.

“Under best global practices, there must be a role of the third party to ensure timely disposal of various tasks. That is why we are doing this to give relief to the public,” said the official.

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