The city corporation has started to send the building plan approval certificates directly to the applicant’s residence through courier service.
According to government norms, public seeking permission to construct residential buildings up to 7,000 square feet and commercial buildings up to 2,000 square feet will have to approach the city corporation through licensed building surveyors (LBS) while those constructing residential building over 7,000 square feet and commercial buildings over 2,000 square feet will have to approach the local planning authority (LAP) for the approval.
A corporation official said, “Planning approval certificates for the buildings up to 2,000 square feet would be dispatched to the applicant’s house within three days and the buildings between 2,000 and 7,000 square feet would be dispatched within seven to ten days after scrutinizing the applications. In case of collecting the certificates from the corporation office, the applicants will have to come in person and it would not be handed over to anyone else.”
The civic body has already started following the procedure for the past few months.
Meanwhile, corporation commissioner P Kumaravel Pandian had rolled back the order that empowered the zonal assistant commissioners to provide plan approval for both residential and commercial buildings up to 2,000 square feet recently.
On July 31, the then corporation commissioner J Sravan Kumar has empowered the zonal assistant commissioners with the power to grant the permission for the buildings constructed in 2,000 square feet of land apart from monitoring the submission of building planning applications, payment of fees among others to the zonal assistant town planning officers (ATPOs). The zonal office was, also, given powers to initiate necessary action against the unauthorized buildings and the buildings that were built with deviation of rules.
Kumaravel Pandian, in a letter dated September 30, said the order empowering the assistant commissioners to provide plan approval was revoked due to administration reasons and the approvals would be granted only by the deputy commissioner. All the assistance executive engineers (planning) at the zonal offices were directed to send the related files to the town planning section of main office without any delay, the letter added.
The corporation have, also, decided to remove all the contract workers functioning at the town planning section in the zone.
