The Times of India          07.10.2014  

BDA drags its feet over plan approval

BHUBANESWAR:
The Bhubaneswar Development Authority is taking an average 104 days to
approve a building plan compared to the stipulation of maximum 60 days
set in the Odisha Right to Public Services Act, 2012. BDA authorization
is a must to begin any construction by individuals or real estate
developers in the state capital.

BDA plan approval figures
between March 2013 and September released on its website bdabbsr.in,
shows the planning branch disposed only around 21 per cent applications
within 60 days. The time to dispose plan approval applications ranged
from a minimum seven days to maximum of over 400 days in the period.

Though Odisha implemented the right to public service in January 2013,
building plan approval was brought under purview of the Act two months
later in March that year.

BDA data showed it disposed of 3,829
applications between March 2013 and September 2014. Of them, 3,599
applications were approved while the remaining 230 were rejected. Only
814 applications (21.25%) were disposed in 60 days while the rest
exceeded the upper time limit.

The planning branch, led by a
member (planning), is responsible for disposing the applications. BDA
member (planning) Pitabasa Sahoo, when contacted, declined to comment as
he said he was “not authorized to speak to the media”.

Another
senior BDA officer said the planning branch was missing the deadline
because of two major reasons. First, the applicants are not submitting
applications that are complete in all respects with all the required
documents. Secondly, some applicants did not deposit fees for several
months even after their requests were processed. This delayed issuance
of the plan approval by the authority. Applications complete in all
respects were disposed much earlier than the allowed time of 60 days, he
said.

According to provisions of the Act, if the designated
officer (junior town planner/assistant town planner) fails to provide
the service without sufficient and reasonable cause by the deadline,
s/he may be imposed a penalty of Rs 250 per each day of delay and a
maximum penalty of Rs 5000.

Developers feel the inordinate
delay in plan approval by BDA is because of the complicated process.
“The process should be simplified so that it becomes easy to understand
and comply with the stipulations for the common man,” said Pradipta
Kumar Biswasroy, president, Real Estate Developers Association of
Odisha.

Step 2: The architect/engineer/planner prepares a plan
following BDA norms, helps the developer fill up the building plan
approval form and submits it to the BDA planning branch along with proof
of land ownership and fees (for scrutiny and processing). The amount
varies depending on project size and type

Step 3: A BDA officer
(Amin) or a team (depending on project size) inspects the project site.
Depending on their recommendations, the planning branch processes the
request and asks developers to submit no objection certificates from the
fire department, municipal authorities, highway authorities (if it is
located near the highway), among others. Individuals applying to build
houses for residential purposes don’t need such NOCs

Step 4:
The development plan and building plan (DP&BP) committee of the BDA
considers the site inspection report and NOCs and issues the plan
approval by charging a sanction fee of Rs 15 per square feet. In case of
individuals, the assistant town planner of the planning branch issues
such approval