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Islamabad the 25th April 2009; Lt Gen
Sajjad Akram, Deputy Chairman, ERRA
met delegation from Allai District
Batagram today in the ERRA
Headquarter. Delegation was led Prince
Nawaz Allai and they appreciated the
efforts of ERRA for the rehabilitation
and reconstruction in the area which
was severely damaged by the Earthquake
of October 2005. ERRA management gave
details about the Bhatar Designed
Housing Strategy in Allai Valley which
was an improved traditional design
house introduce by ERRA in the
reconstruction of houses in the
earthquake effected areas . “Improved
Bhatar Designe” has been introduced to
resolve the issue of construction of
houses which were non-complaint of
ERRA strategy and resultantly, they
were not being paid the housing grant.
ERRA approved BHATTAR design, a non
engineered construction technique; on
the request of people of BATAGRAM.
The issue of Non Compliant BHATTAR
houses came to ERRA notice when over
5000 houses were declared non
compliant by PPAF engineers as they
required engineering judgment on site
in order to declare them compliant.
This issue created hardships for the
people who created law and order
situation in Batagram which warranted
ERRA’s intervention, being the lead
government agency.
In order to resolve the issue, ERRA
constituted a special team of
qualified engineers to carry out
sample inspection of these houses to
find out whether the houses were
compliant or not. As a result of the
survey all the houses have found to be
compliant by ERRA engineers and PPAF
has been directed to release them the
payment. This will help 5300 people in
getting their third tranche of rural
housing. All these houses will again
be inspected for the final tranche and
if found compliant, rest of the amount
i.e. Rs.50,000 will be released to
them per house.
This all was done to ensure
transparency of the system and the
seismic resistance of the houses
inspected. We appreciate the efforts
put in by Mr. Prince Nawaz Allai (MNA)
from Batagram and his team and PPAF
which agreed to accept ERRA decision
on this important issue. With this
decision of ERRA all BHATTAR houses
verified by SRSP will become compliant
and will receive the held up housing
subsidy.
It is important to mention that this
ERRA initiative is not at the cost of
any organization rather it brings a
win win situation for all stakeholders
as the matter itself was very complex
and it was not possible for any single
organization to have resolved it
amicably. This also does not mean that
the inspection regime of ERRA has been
compromised which will continue to
exist and to ensure that all houses
are built as per the required standard
of ERRA. ERRA request all the people
to reconstruct their houses as per
ERRA design and before 30th May 2009
which is the last date of inspection. |
