PUNE: The building permissions department of the Pune Municipal Corporation ( PMC) has raked in record revenue from the allotment of building permissions in the 2012-13 financial year, receiving Rs 631 crore as fees for construction including development charges.

Civic officials attributed the higher revenue to the revision of rates in granting building permission. There has been an increase in the department's income in the last three years from development charges, compounding fees, FSI, balcony premium and other such fees, they added.

Vivek Kharwadkar, head of the building permissions department, also attributed the revenue hike to reforms and better systemic coordination. "We were set a target of Rs 600 crore during the last fiscal. We achieved more. The auto development control rules, the system used to provide building permissions has been upgraded. The number of no-objection certificates (NOCs) required has been reduced to speed up allotment," said Kharwadkar.

Statistics with the department showed a decline in the number of permissions given. In 2012-13, it was 4,440 but 4,623 in 2011-12 financial year.

The total area of construction has also gone down by 8 lakh sq metres. Permissions for construction of 74 lakh sq metres were granted in 2011-12, which reduced to 66 lakh sq metres in 2012-13.