Now, seek online approval for construction around protected monuments in six states

New Delhi: The process to seek approval for construction in prohibited and regulated areas around the Archaeological Survey of India protected monuments will now be easier in six states, where 517 local bodies have made it online.

The Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (I/C) Prahlad Singh Patel launched the integrated NOC online application processing system for the National Monuments Authority (NMA) here on Tuesday.

"With an increase of urbanisation, development, growth and increasing population pressure, there is growing pressure on land including the land around centrally protected monuments. This often affects the monument or site adversely. Such growth around the centrally protected monuments must be properly regulated," the minister said.

Earlier, this system was available only for five urban local bodies of Delhi and one urban local body of Mumbai. The Portal has integration with the Smart 'Smarac' Mobile App of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), through which the applicant traverses his plot and the geo-coordinates of his plot along with the images get uploaded into the NIC portal along with the proximity and the approval status.

A ministry communique mentioned, "the applicant needs to fill up a single form which is being sent to the concerned agencies by the Urban Local Body, from whom No Objection Certificate (NOC) is required. NMA on its part will communicate its decision to the local body within 15-30 working days, bringing down the time limit from ninety days, as prescribed in Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act."

The six new states are Madhya Pradesh (378), Andhra Pradesh (110), Haryana (15), (10), Jharkhand (3) and Telangana (1).