KATHMANDU: The government has relaxed some of the provisions related to the ban imposed on the construction of new houses. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD)on Wednesday decided to allow construction of new buildings that are more than two storeys tall and whose blueprints had been approved earlier, and issue pending building permits. Along with this, the previous decision to restrict construction of buildings taller than two storeys (including ground floor) has been cancelled. A deputy prime minister-level meeting held today took the decision, based on which, blueprints and designs of new houses which were seeking building permits before the decision of May 18 would be approved and allowed to be constructed, according to MoFALD. In case of other new structures, the local development ministry has given continuity to restriction. This means, people who want to start construction of new houses will not be able to apply and get the blueprints approved until mid-July, as decided earlier. On May 18, MoFALD had restricted construction of new houses above two storeys and stopped blueprint approval process until mid-July, citing need for amendment to the existing construction rules. “As a revision to the National Building Code is also in the final stage, we are hopeful to be able to start issuing permits for other new houses after mid-July,” said Purna Chandra Bhattarai, spokesperson at MoFALD. The government had been facing criticism of imposing a ban and affecting the housing industry and economic activities. After today’s decision, the pending blueprints and designs of structures falling under four building categories — A, B, C and D — would be granted approval based on the existing National Building Code 2003. As per the Building Act 1998, category ‘A’ buildings are ‘modern multi-storey structures built based on international state-of-the-art technology, that also meet the building standards of developed countries’. Similarly, buildings having plinth area of more than 1,000 square feet and more than three storeys, including the ground floor or with structural span of more than 4.5 metres fall under category ‘B’. In ‘C’ category, the house structure should have a plinth area of up to 1,000 square feet, with up to three floors, including the ground floor, or with structural span of up to 4.5 metres. ‘D’ category structures are small houses, sheds made of baked or unbaked bricks, stones, clay, et cetera. However, structures that fall under categories ‘A’ and ‘B’ must follow the instruction issued previously. While taking a decision not to issue permits for new houses, MoFALD on May 18 had made it mandatory for ‘A’ and ‘B’ category buildings to prepare designs based on soil tests and soil bearing capacity of the location where the structure is planned. Bhattarai said that soil tests and soil bearing capacity had been made mandatory to make multi-storeyed buildings safe. MoFALD had stated earlier that many buildings in Kathmandu Valley collapsed and became unsafe due to ‘soil failure’, design failure and poor quality construction. Similarly, MoFALD has instructed all municipalities to approve blueprints and designs, conduct technical supervision and certify buildings under categories ‘A’ and ‘B’ by involving only those engineers who are registered with the Nepal Engineering Council. In case the construction of such buildings has already been started, developers will be required to maintain a hoarding board at the construction site with all the relevant information, such as name of the engineer, date in which blueprint was approved, name of engineer responsible in supervision, the building’s ground area ratio, floor area ratio and set back area until the construction is completed.