The Hindu 14.11.2009

Transparency in building plan application processing stressed

Staff Reporter

Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

Sharing his views: Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Surjit K.Chaudhary (centre) at a review meeting in the city on Friday. —

Coimbatore: Building plan permission applications submitted in standardised format should be decided by the respective local planning authorities (LPA) within 30 days and the return of applications seeking details should be done within three days, said Surjit K. Choudhry, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, on Friday.

Mr. Choudhry said that officials had been instructed to bring in place the infrastructure required for online submission and status enquiry of the applications to ensure transparency in building plan application processing.

The official, along with the Commissioner, Town and Country Planning, Ashok Dongre, had a review meeting on pending applications in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode districts with Collectors P. Umanath (Coimbatore), R. Sudalaikannan (Erode), C. Samayamoorthy (Tirupur), Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra and LPA officials, following complaints by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India and Builders Association of Tamil Nadu of inordinate delay in the disposal of building plan permission applications.

Reviewing pending applications, Mr. Choudhry said 825 applications in Coimbatore LPA areas, 76 in no LPA areas of Coimbatore, 44 in Tirupur, four in Kurichi, 50 in Erode LPA areas and 28 in non-LPA areas were pending with authorities.

In total, 1,027 applications were pending with the authorities. Of them, 551 pertained to special buildings with ground plus three floors, 51 were for multi-storeyed buildings and 120 for layout approval.

A total of 237 applications seeking reclassification of land use pattern from the master plan were from Coimbatore, he said.

A standardised format of building plan permission application with check report of required information had been evolved, Mr. Choudhry said and added that the officials had been instructed to clear pending applications before December 15.

He also said that instances of architects and licensed surveyors filing applications without complete details would be taken a serious note of. Those guilty may have face actions such as cancellation of licences if such mistakes recurred, he said.