Architects in the state are upset over the recent amendment to the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations, 2010, wherein site supervisors are given the authority to approve building plan for ground plus one construction having plot less than 500 square metres.

In a strongly worded objection letter addressed to the chief town planner, Town and Country Planning (TCP), architects have said that the amendment needs to be scrapped as it is against the safety and design of the building and strikes at the ethics of the architect profession.

Manguesh Prabhugaonkar, chairman of Indian Institutes of Architects (IIA), Goa Chapter, said that giving design powers to the site supervisors is highly questionable and the role of the site supervisor must be restricted to only supervision at the construction site.  “The amendment needs to be dropped as the supervisor cannot be allowed to be a signatory to the drawings for approval to authority,” he said, adding that qualification of the site supervisors are mostly diploma engineers and the “qualification is itself questionable under the Act.”

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The National Building Code 2016, also does not permit a civil supervisor to be given design powers, they said. The association has urged an urgent correction to the notification pointing out that it is in “complete violation to the Architects Act 1972.”