SDMC’s paperless mode to sanction plans for clearing building proposals gain ground in city

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which had “first” initiated issuance of digitally signed sanction letters in the country to clear building plans, has claimed that the procedure of sanctioning building plan online in a totally digitised and paperless manner is now getting a wider acceptance in the Capital as it is being issued within 14 days depending upon the risk-based categorisation.

South Corporation Commissioner Dr P K Goel, in a high-level meeting, chaired by the Additional Secretary of Union Urban Development Ministry Durga Shanker Mishra and attended by the Joint Secretary department of Industrial Policy and Promotion P K Gupta, shared similar thoughts on the issue. 

The residential plans are being released within an average time of one week though some of the residential plans have been released even within 48 hours. The maximum time being taken in residential plans is 13 days. The time-lines may be further reduced after stabilisation of the system. 

The plot holders have been filing their applications through Single Window Clearance in Common Application Forms devised under the concept of Ease of Doing Business. Since launching of the online modules with common application form under Single Window Clearance system from April 8 to June 27, the civic body received 630 numbers of plans.  

He said: “Out of 630 plans, 553 building plans have been sanctioned online. 284 sanctioned plans have been digitally released under the new system commissioned with the devoted endeavors of the officers of south. Only nine cases have been rejected due to submission of incomplete information. 

The remaining applications are being processed expeditiously.”  

The government of India had conceptualised under its ease of doing business policy two years back to commission a paperless, expeditious and hassle-free sanction of building plans for different categories of buildings through the online mode. 

Taking a cue from this, the South Corporation developed the initial softwares for each category. The civic body have also enlarged the ambit of the categories under the new system by including the category of the group housing, institutional building for education, health and cultural activities. Now, online applications through this mode under Single Window Clearance System/Common application Forms are also being accepted under the new categories added in the list.