Single-window portal for building plans to go online in three civic bodies in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI:  The state government will introduce a new single-window portal for developers and builders to submit their building plans online on a pilot basis in Tirunelveli corporation and Tiruttani and Marimalai Nagar municipalities on Monday. The portal will integrate various departments and local bodies and make the process easier for the people. The pilot run is being carried out after officials received training to operate the software developed by the Tamil Nadu e-governance agency. 

S Sridharan, director of LYRA properties and chairman (policy - housing and urban development) of CREDAI national told TNIE, “We hope the software is already tested and there are no hiccups in its implementation.”

Services proposed under the portal will include processing of planning permissions, building permission applications, completion certificates and occupancy certificates. Builders can also apply for layout approval for land falling under the jurisdiction of the directorate of town and country planning, Greater Chennai Corporation and the commissionerate of municipal administration. The portal will be user-friendly, transparent and will keep digital records for future use by authorities.

Builders Association of India state secretary, S Rama Prabhu, raised concerns about the flaws in the single window portal which was initially launched by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. “One issue is the delay in drawing scrutiny, which takes more than a month, causing delays in the project implementation. We have raised the issue with minister PK Sekar Babu. The single window portal should be launched once all the issues are resolved,” he said.

The single window portal was planned after the state single window monitoring committee urged the IT department to ensure a uniform framework for all government service delivery portals to make integration of services easier.