"Developers and individual house builders have had to wait for long in obtaining clearance from various authorities before beginning work," said Engineer Nurul Islam, secretary of the Civil Engineering Divisional Committee (CEDC) under the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) at the discussion organised by CEDC on April 11.

Appreciating the move, he told Star City that the OWSC would facilitate constructors to get clearance from a single committee comprising representatives of Wasa, (Water and Sewerage Authority), Fire Service and Civil Defence and Department of Environment.

"But I doubt if the representatives of all authorities will regularly attend meetings to verify the validity of applications," he added.

A provision in the act says the application would be considered 'approved' if the authorities did not attend the meeting within timeframe, a speaker said. "This provision cannot be considered valid," he said adding it may cause anomalies in the long run.

The speakers said institutions such as BUET, IEB and those of public interest should be involved in processing applications and approving and implementing construction plans.

Solaiman Chowdhury, deputy director of Fire Services and Civil Defence, criticising the OWSC said the authorities do not know what conditions should be met to certify construction plans. "What facilities will the OWSC provide?" he asked.

Instead, he said, gas, electricity, water and other authorities could provide a checklist for a five- or six-member committee of Rajuk that can in turn certify them.

He added that a checklist could be provided for the constructors before the application is made so that they might know exactly what the application requirements are.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, director of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association, said there must be a mechanism like the Appellate Division to hear cases of the parties that fail to get Rajuk approval.

The act should be equal in valuation of all applicants and any flaws in the proposal should be eliminated, she added.

Rizwana also suggested a detailed environmental impact assessment including public hearing of adjoining areas of the project be carried out before finalising a highrise building project.

However, Engineer Jamilur Reza Choudhury, vice-chancellor of BRAC University, suggested that models of Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority or Software Park could be followed in terms of application and approval of the plans.

Alamgir Mohiuddin, editor of The New Nation, said jurisdictions of Dhaka City Master Plan should be clearly defined in the proposed act.

The high-rises should be defined as structures exceeding 20-metre height from the finished ground level to the top of the parapet wall instead of building height from finished ground level to the top of the staircase as proposed in the act, the participants said.

To maximise the benefit from limited land, Rajuk should consider community use through highrise structures and not permit small extents in lucrative areas to be sites for highrises, the speakers said.

They proposed the inclusion of Rajuk's proper mechanism of the monitoring and enforcement cell and specific provisions to minimise accidents during construction.