BBMP's online push to cut red tape

It has made it easy for builders to get sanctions and citizens to check approvals

The BBMP has posted online all approved plans and commencement and occupancy certificates.

Citizens can now see all details for 2019-20 by logging into the BBMP’s website, bbmp.gov.in/ townplanning.html

“This will help save time, bring in ease of doing business and do away with corruption,” says BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad.

Earlier, when developers approached the BBMP to get their drawings approved, the engineers would use software to check them. In case of any error, the software would reject the plan and the developer would have to return with perfect documentation.

R Prasad, additional director, town planning, BBMP, says, “We have done away with the hard copy business. The developer/owner or builder has to scan everything and upload the documents to the online building permit system to get approvals. Everything is now integrated in end-to-end software. Even the payments can be made online.”

BBMP registered professionals can buy the software used by BBMP engineers by paying Rs 1,000 to the software developer.

“Building developers will now have to make sure all drawings comply with 2003 BBMP building bylaws, and national building code (including subsequent amendments) and zoning regulations of 2015,” says Prasad.

Many clearances

Buildings that require no objection certificates (NOC) from the Pollution Control Board, KPTCL, BMRCL and other government bodies can now submit a common application to the online building permit system-single window clearance system under ease of doing business by submitting a Common Application Form(CAF) to the BBMP. “It will move from the portal of one department to the other and be verified online. The departments are integrated,” says Prasad.

He says this newly developed website will also give an idea of how the city is growing. “You get complete details on a pie chart,” he says.

He also states “Since this is a new method of approval of buildings adapted in BBMP, in case the developers/builders or BBMP officials are facing any issue using this system, a team of trained officials and software coordinators are deputed to attend and resolve their grievances.”

Expert opinion

‘Go beyond town planning’

Dr Anjali Karol Mohan, partner, Integrated Design (INDE), welcomes the BBMP’s initiative.

The spruced-up website throws light on how the town planning section of the BBMP works, the consultant and researcher told Metrolife.

“While the website may help the individual citizen interested in getting a plan sanctioned, what is critical is how this information is useful to the city as a whole,” she says.

To that extent the website in its current form is limited,” she says.

She feels town planning is not just about zoning regulations and building bylaws.

“Planning is about the liveability of the city as a whole. While the BDA is the planning authority, the BBMP is the implementer,” she says.

Planning is about people, as it is about infrastructure, public spaces, lakes, trees, schools and healthcare.

Neither the planning agency nor the implementer (BBMP) is equipped to engage with all these aspects of the city,” Anjaili observes.

“The BBMP neither has the capacity, nor the will to implement the Master Plan 2015. Planning is a larger activity, and the absence of implementation will adversely impact the city.

Better interface required

Civic activist Srinivas Alavilli, feels the new bbmp.gov.in website is a huge improvement on its earlier version. “It is a good beginning, but searching is not very intuitive. It assumes the user knows a lot of things about how the BBMP is organised,” he told Metrolife.

The site is better than before, when PDF files were just dumped online. But even now, it is difficult to correlate the connections between budgets, wards, job codes, tenders, work orders and payment, he notes.

“If these are clearly shown, we can achieve really good levels of transparency and become a role model for other cities,” he says.

New website attractions

What normally takes six to eight months now takes only 18 days.

Fewer procedures. NOCs from 11 departments against a single application.

One-time payment only. The software has a front-end calculator.

BBMP has roped in HDFC Bank as the coordinator.

More transparency. You can track your file and see with which official it is pending.

Assistant engineers get seven days to clear a file. If the deadline lapses, file moves to another engineer.