KABUL: To provide better services in real estate sector, the Afghanistan National Standard Authority (ANSA) on Tuesday introduced first batch of building codes that would help construction projects to be more safe and effective.
Speaking at a conference titled “Introduction of Afghanistan Building Codes” or ABC, Director General of ANSA, Popal Popalzai, said there was urgent need to draft building codes for construction projects in the country as dozens of investors were denying to invest in mega-infrastructure projects due to lack of standard building codes.
He said four building codes have been developed for the sector as follow: Urban Development Code, Construction Code, Architecture Code and Code for Road and Bridge Construction. He said the codes were developed in close cooperation with related ministries, state and non-sate organizations and private sector members who were active in construction sector.
He said lack of building codes was one of the main reasons preventing foreign investors to invest in real estate sector of the country, while national companies were not given contracts due to absence of such codes. On the other hand the construction companies were using different building codes in their projects contracted with government and private sector, copied from other regional and world countries. “Using the developed codes would increase safety of the projects and would bring the construction costs to lower level and this way would help private and public sectors to have standard projects for low prices.”
Popalzai noted the codes have been developed by ANSA and now it’s the duty of the related organs to help the authority to implement the codes in construction projects. “There is need for strong cooperation of the government organs and private sector to pave the way for implementation of the codes and this way help the country to have standard projects for less prices.”
ANSA start work in 2008 with limited sources and human force while that time people were unaware of the activities, areas of works, authorities and responsibilities of the organ. But with continued struggle and tireless efforts of the officials now the ANSA is in a better position, he said.
To-date the organ has developed around 413 national standards for different sectors including edible commodities, agriculture products, medicines and cosmetics, petroleum, construction materials, electronics, measures, chemicals and plastics, demining and environment protections sectors.
He revealed in addition to International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Afghanistan has membership of other top standardization organizations in throughout the world that could improve ANSA’s capabilities in different sectors.
Public Work Minister, Eng. Najibullah Auodjan, said his ministry would try to use the “Building Codes” of the ANSA in its projects, but it would take time to be ready and synchronize the projects designs with new codes.
It is worth to mention here that ANSA provides services in areas of developing standards, Accreditation, Metrology, Regulatory Body and Conformity Assessment.
A number of projects of the ANSA including the ABC was financially supported by HARAKAT-Afghanistan Investment Climate Facility Organization with the total cost of around $3.3 m.
Afghanistantimes
Tags: ANSA, batch, codes, introduces
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