A two-member team from the Punjab State Urban Department on Friday visited Kozhikode to get a first-hand knowledge of the digitalised building plan approval process at the city corporation.
Inderjeet Singh, Senior Town Planner, and Sarbjit Singh, District Town Planner, held discussions with Mayor Thottathil Raveendran and senior officials, including Regional Town Planner K.V. Abdul Malik, on the automated intelligent software project developed by Bengaluru-based e-Government Foundation.
The Malabar Chamber of Commerce had earlier provided ₹50 lakh for implementing the project. Last year, the project became fully operational after the success of the pilot programme.
The Kozhikode Municipal Corporation is the only civic body in the State to implement an open source platform for building plans. “The initiative of the Kerala government is encouraging. Already, Punjab is giving online approval to building projects. But it is not automated like in Kozhikode,” Mr. Singh, who is the team leader, told The Hindu .
He said the team would submit a report on the activities carried out in the Kozhikode Corporation to the Punjab government. “It is up to the government to decide on the source of funding for the project,” he said.
Besides, Mr. Singh said, building approvals in Punjab were done in two phases and governed by several rules such as Punjab Urban Planning and Development Building Rules and Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Rules. “So amendments may have to be done to bring in an automation system. However the project in Kozhikode is appreciable and public-friendly,” he said, adding that the team had plans to visit Kochi too.
Mr. Malik said that several countries, including UAE and Ghana, and States such as Bihar and Assam had evinced interest in the project. The online software process is not only hassle-free but is also transparent and corruption-free. It would take only a fortnight to get the approval for a building, he said.
An engineer just needs to upload the application using the software. Only applications cleared by the software could be submitted to the corporation office for verification. Thus the pending of applications had come down drastically, Mr. Malik pointed out.
