Construction permit regulations for high-rises to be revised
After meeting with Bangkok's administrative heads on Monday, Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)’s Public Works Department will set up a committee to revise the regulations for the issuing of permits for high-rise and large developments.
The plan comes on the heels of the Supreme Administrative Court’s verdict last month that retroactively invalidated the construction permit of Ashton Asoke tower in Watthana district.
Ananda Development was battling a legal case regarding the misuse of land expropriated by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand as the entrance to the 6-billion-baht condo project which, by law, must be at least 12 metres wide for a building this size.
Chadchart said the aim of the revision is to make the regulations more suitable for the current urban plan, as well as to promote online submissions for permit applications.
“Most developers are not familiar with online submission, which we plan to fix by adding more incentives,” he said. “For example, the processing period for an online application could be reduced to 30 days from the 45 days required for a traditional submission.”
Regarding a request by activist Srisuwan Janya, who had filed lawsuits in the Ashton Asoke case, to have BMA set up a committee to investigate possible corruption in the issuance of the project’s construction permit, Chadchart said the BMA will not set up another committee for this specific case.
“The Public Works Department’s committee will be responsible for the revision of regulations for all eligible buildings, and will use Ashton Asoke as a case study,” Chadchart said. “As for the corruption (of city officials) in the Ashton Asoke case, anyone with evidence should forward this to BMA and we will investigate immediately.”
The meeting on Monday also acknowledged the progress of BMA’s unified urban plan project, which is currently in the public hearing process.
“This project does not aim to overhaul the city plan but to proritise the development projects in each area,” said Chadchart. “There could be some changes in certain zones under the unified plan, but they will happen gradually.”
