Chandigarh: If you are planning to go in for an online approval of your building plan, be ready to take the manual route.
Even as the UT estate office has started accepting
building plans online, the system is far from perfect. Though it is yet to get a formal launch, the online system, being implemented by the estate office's building branch, has started accepting plans.
Though the procedure has been brought online, an applicant has to visit the building branch office in Sector 17 and get its entry done in the branch's diary, following which the process of submission of plan is initiated. The system involves a lot of paper work.
Architects are complaining that the department has so far not shared details of the plan-submission process with them nor are there any provisions for imparting training to them and staff of building branch. City-based architect Pallav Mukherjee, who is also president of Chandigarh Architect Association, said staff of the building branch were creating hurdles, instead of clearing them out. "Staff handling the system is not qualified. If the administration is serious about starting an online system for submitting building plans, qualified staff from the architecture department should be given responsibility of running the system," said Mukherjee, who added that architects were willing to assist the department in making the system more effective and user-friendly.
UT finance secretary-cum-secretary (estate) Ajoy Kumar Sinha said they had started accepting building plans online and all shortcoming would be resolved.
