Infrastructural Development is the nucleus of any Smart City project. As sustainable infrastructure ensures better living standards, it forms the important parameter of a smart city. The world is urbanizing at an unprecedented speed and scale, with more than half the global population living in cities today and which is estimated to rise to nearly 7 out of 10 people in cities by 2050.Smart Cities market worldwide ispoised to reach over US$546.1 Billion by the year 2025. This triggered the need toplan infrastructure expansion to ensure ease of livability. And there was a paradigm shift in enhancing the efficiency of the infrastructural development processes. This made it imperative, for technology to play a pivotal role in facilitating the ease through automation.
Building plan & permission process, an essential part of the post allotment system, regulates the construction of buildings based on specific set of rules and regulations determined by the development authorities. Since most of the building plan applications & drawing plans are submitted manually in paper format with manual scrutiny & approval process, it involves longer processing time, errors & variance in evaluation, more cost & more resources. Moreover, status tracking by the citizens & department officials becomes difficult & cumbersome with manual process in place.
The BPAS automates the lengthy and cumbersome manual process of checking the development regulations, thus reducing paper work, valuable time and effort of Architects and the Authority. It facilitates quick processing and disposal of building plan permissions, standardization of building fee & other charges, automation of the technical scrutiny, effective monitoring of file processing. The approval system is based on uniform interpretation of development control rules making the compliance to regulations simpler & cheaper and therefore the incentive for builders to bypass laws & build unsafe structures drastically reduces.” Accountability is ensured through authorized roles and responsibilities mapping, transparency is brought in through clear reasons stated for approval or rejections, and process efficiency is tracked through MIS reports
Modules:
Registration and Empanelment of Technical Persons: The system enables online registration of the technical persons like architects & structural engineers to be empaneled under the municipal authority, which qualifies them to submit construction plans.
Online Application of Building Plan: Through a Common application form, the citizen or the architect can apply online for the building plan approval. A receipt is generated as an acknowledgment of the application with a provisional reference no.
Auto Tagging of Architects & Structural Engineers: The system facilitates auto tagging of empaneled architects & structural engineers for easy verification, approval & compliance.
Online Submission of Building Plan: The architect uploads the building plan along with drawing (manually) or submits the drawing plan online (where AutoCAD integrated with the system) adhering to the Development Control Regulations (DCR)
Manual/Auto Scrutiny & Deviation Report: Both manual and auto scrutiny is facilitated by the system, as per the client’s requirement. Manual scrutiny is carried out physically & the files are uploaded thereafter.Auto scrutiny is facilitated through approval of plan through CAD and automation of verification process. The authority reports for any deviation in the plan and compliance for the same. It may also set auto penalties for general deviation with remarks.
Provisional Fire NOC & Tree Permit: In case of integration with Fire, Tree permit and other external agencies, a provisional No Objection Certificate (NOC) is generated online. The other agencies may include environment authority, national monuments authority, pollution control board, airport authority, electricity, water etc.In the absence of integration with external agencies, the NOC received is uploaded to the system for verification. Tree permit gives permission to cut the tree or transplant the tree with specifies guidelines for compliance to be followed by the citizen, while construction.
Auto Calculation of Fee & Online Payment: The configured fee structure facilitates auto- calculation of fees to be paid for building plan. The additional chargers for deviation and non-compliance are also calculated .The payment is done through online payment gateway.
Building Plan Approval by Town Planner: The Town planner scrutinizes the plan according to the DCR parameters and reviews it. The risk categorization is also done according to the building type and purpose. This is physically verified and reports are uploaded categorizing the building for further scrutiny & compliances. After the approval, digitally signed certificate is generated for construction.
Plinth Level Approval: The details of commencement of construction & plinth is submitted for verification by the Town planner. And remarks is given after the physical verification of the plinth. For any deviation, the compliance or penalty is raised.
Quarterly update of construction: Progress of the construction is tracked through this quarterly report. This helps in monitoring the construction, deviation and compliance.
Online Application for Occupancy Certificate: After the completion of the construction, one can apply for the occupancy certificate. Which is followed by a physical verification of the building.
Final Fire NOC & Other Agencies: Final Fire and other NOC is provided after the final field inspection, whose report is uploaded with remarks.
Issuance of Final Occupancy Certificate: After the verification of the all the documents which includes NOC’s and other building plan& construction completion reports , the final occupancy certificate is generated online with digital signature of the authority. In case of rejection, the same is intimated to the citizen/ architects for compliance or resubmission.
