The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) building department has made online application mandatory for sanction of building plans in case of new construction. Manual application will be allowed only to seek approval of plans for additions and alterations to existing structures and reconstruction of insecure buildings, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.
The KMC had introduced the online system for building plan sanction a couple of years back.
The mayor claimed that the online system, which is considered to be transparent and time-bound, has generated good response among the citizens. “ Initially, we had offered the option to submit manual drawings in case of complications. But now, we are convinced that the citizens are conversant with the online system and hence manual applications have been done away with,” Hakim added.
A KMC building department source said the civic body sanctions around 250 building plans in a month. “In the manual mode, we needed at least 45 days to sanction even a simple plan without legal complications. Now, it takes barely a fortnight to complete the same work ,” said a civic official. According to the official, the civic body has alerted the executive engineers of Behala, the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt, Garia and vast areas located off EM Bypass to tackle extra load of sanctioning plans as these areas have been witnessing a spurt in construction.
According to a KMC building department official, the civic body has developed an advanced network at the civic headquarters and in the borough offices. A specialized software system has been installed for scrutinizing the online applications along with the drawings that need to be submitted for approval of the plan.
The KMC officials have also organized workshops for architects and licensed building surveyors to make them acquainted with the new system.
“We had no problems with the architects handling large housing projects. But, we had to train the surveyors for application of plans for apartment buildings or individual houses under the new system to expedite the process for owners of small plots,” said a KMC official.