Single window clearance for building plans, approval within 30 days in Delhi

New Delhi: To improve ease of doing business, the government has announced revised building bye-laws for Delhi which envisages single window clearance and payment system with approval of building plans within 30 days.

"Delhi's building bye-laws were last revised in 1983 and several amendments were made over the last three decades resulting in complexity and even confusion in understanding various changes and filing applications accordingly.

"To do away with this problem, the bye-laws have been unified for easy reference besides simplification of processes," Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said releasing the bye-laws.

He said the applicants can make a single online application to the concerned urban local body instead of approaching various agencies thereby reducing human interface and enabling approvals in 30 days.

"The maximum time limit for granting building permit has been reduced from 60 days to just 30 days and beyond 30 days, it would be deemed approved," he said.

According to the new bye-laws, the applicants will not be required to make payments to various agencies separately and instead can make single payment to the concerned urban local body electronically.

Environment Ministry has also agreed to empower urban local bodies to accord Environmental Clearance (EC) for built up area up to 1,50,000 sqm as against the present norm of obtaining EC from state environment assessment authorities under that Ministry for built up area of 20,000 sqm and above up to 1,50,000 sqm, according to an official statement.

For residential plots of size up to 105 sqm, the plot owner need not obtain sanction of building plans and just need to submit an undertaking intimating about construction along with requisite fees and other documents.

The number of documents to be submitted for obtaining building permits has also been reduced from 40 to 14 in the revised bye-laws.

Naidu said all buildings on plot sizes of more than 105 sqm have to conform to the mandatory green building norms for obtaining sanctions like provisions for water conservation and management and solar energy utilization.

Owners of plots of more than 3,000 sqm area will construct public washroom complexes with access from outside, besides other mandatory sanitary requirements, as per the bye-laws.