Building plan approvals will now materialize within 60 days, through an online single window system. To facilitate this, Tamil Nadu housing and urban development department has ordered Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) to launch the ‘Go Live’ website.
As of now, though much of the process has been online, the requirement for no-objection certificates (NOCs) from various departments, delay in-site inspections by officials and follow-up on the approval process remained offline, making it a tedious and time-consuming process.
In the order, HUDD secretary Hitesh Kumar S Makwana has stated that DTCP should direct all local planning authorities to begin trials for ‘Go Live’ by April 1, 2022 and CMDA and DTCP should implement them immediately, and send monthly progress reports to the government.
The process began in February 2022 when the chief secretary had ordered the departments to set up the online portal, issue guidelines for getting NOCs. Chief minister M K Stalin also approved this process the same month, after which CMDA began the trial process for their website and began uploading the documents. Anshul Mishra, member-secretary, CMDA, said they had to fix a few bugs and in a few weeks, the website will be fully functional and available.
“This single window system bringing all these agencies under one portal and making it a time-bound process will improve this sector immensely,” Ravichandran, general manager of TVS Emerald, told TOI. Welcoming the initiative, he said it would reduce hassles as, otherwise, it would take three to six months.
Hitherto developers had to follow up with officials of various departments such as fire and rescue, police, Airport authority of India, Indian Airforce, CMRL, public works department, Indian railways, national monumental authority, Archaeological survey of India, CRZ clearance, department of environment and so on.
Source: TOI