South Delhi civic agency makes building plan approval process fully online

To avoid wasting months for getting a building plan approved from several governmental agencies, the SDMC, which is the nodal agency for all the corporations, has simplified the process and made available a form on its website which allows one to complete all the procedures through a single-window system.

A senior official of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said, “In order to get building plans approved, people had to face lot of problems especially in knowing whether the area comes under the jurisdiction of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Airport Authority of India (AAI).”

The web portal has advanced features which uses Google earth to tell people if their house comes under the jurisdiction of ASI, DMRC, etc.

Earlier, the South Corporation had planned to simplify the process by making a single-window online system to seek clearances from all the concerned departments such as Delhi Fire Service, DMRC, ASI, Forest Department and others but the portal was not fully functional and several departments were yet to be incorporated.

The agency has now added forest department, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Delhi Jal Board (DJB). Also, the new building by laws rules (2017) have been added to the web portal.

“Besides helping people in knowing the exact status of the place, they want to construct their house in, it will also curb corruption as people can see with the help of Google earth that whether their house falls in the jurisdiction of these departments or not,” he added.

The online system also enables the applicants to track the status of their applications without having to make rounds of the zonal office concerned. The applicants can also submit the fees and download the digitised approved maps online.

Earlier, it was the duty of people to get no-objection certificate (NOCs) from nine different departments like Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC), ASI, DMRC, Chief Inspector of Factories (CIF), Airport Authority of India, Heritage Conservation Committee, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), DJB and DISCOMS.

People constructing houses in Delhi need approval from governmental departments at different stages right from sanction of building plans to plinth intimation to completion cum occupancy certificate, he said.