The Ministry of Urban Development has constituted a high-powered review and monitoring committee for fast tracking approval of building plans with land area of 5,000 sq. metres or more for commercial/industrial purpose and 10,000 sq. m. or more for residential use in the national capital.
The objective behind setting up of the committee is to foster a business friendly environment in Delhi. Till now, getting building plans approved by the concerned urban local bodies was an uphill task and the process of securing No Objection Certificates and other clearances from various authorities was cumbersome and experienced inordinate delays.
The World Bank had tracked the procedures, time and cost for constructing a standardised warehouse in Delhi as part of its Doing Business project which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small to medium sized domestic business in 189 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2014.
The information collected by the World Bank to assess the time and costs involved in obtaining necessary licenses and permits, completing required notifications and inspections and securing utility connections for construction of a standardised warehouse in Delhi shows that the process of requesting and obtaining building permit from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (trifurcated into three bodies – North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation in 2012) takes 60 days to complete. The time required to complete the other related procedures vary. While a no tax due certificate from the MCD can be obtained within two days, securing an occupancy permit after completion notice from the same agency may take up to six to eight weeks. Besides the MCD, there are a host of other agencies such as Fire Department, Delhi Police, District Forest Office, Delhi Jal Board and Delhi Pollution Control Board from whom builders need to get approvals for construction. The involvement of multiple agencies makes the process of obtaining construction permits time consuming and prone to delays.
The MoUD constituted 16-member high powered review and monitoring committee is headed by the Vice Chairman of Delhi Development Authority. Other members of the committee include Chairperson – New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Commissioner – South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Commissioner – North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Commissioner – East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Commissioner (Planning) – DDA and representatives from Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Defence, Airport Authority of India, National Highways Authority of India, Central Pollution Control Board, National Monuments Authority, Delhi Fire Service, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, Delhi Urban Art Commission and Heritage Conservation Committee.
The committee will meet at least once every month and review and monitor all cases relating to sanction of building plans having land area of 5,000 sq. metres or more for commercial and industrial purpose and 10,000 sq. metres or more for residential use to ensure that such plans are scrutinised and approved in a time bound manner within 30 days from date of application. Local bodies and building plan approval authorities have been issued instructions that they should send the brief about all these cases to the committee immediately on receipt of building plan. The cases relating to NOC and other clearances are to be sent to concerned authorities. The committee will sort out inter-departmental issues to ensure that NOC and other clearances are received from concerned authorities within 30 days from date of application. The committee may ask an applicant to attend its meetings for resolving outstanding issues pertaining to his case. In case of any grievance, an applicant can directly write to the committee requesting that his case be taken up in the review meeting.
