The Times of India          11.11.2010

No more waiting for TCP approvals for building home

PANAJI: The aam admi may no longer have to wait for weeks for technical approval from the town and country planning (TCP) department for his house construction plans. Now, a notary architect or engineer can sign his papers within a few days.

The TCP is in the process of appointing notary engineers and notary architects for the purpose of giving technical approvals to plans of single-dwelling houses.

As per the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations 2010, which came into effect from November 8, a single window system is proposed to be set up to streamline the process of approvals.

"I don't think the notary architect/engineer will take time. It can be done on the day of submission of plan or may be in a couple of days depending upon the schedule of the architect or engineer," senior town planner S T Puttaraju said.

This will be a relief for those wishing to build a residential house in a plot which is not more than 2,000 sq m in size. Initially, the government wanted to restrict it to a single dwelling in a 1,000 sq m plot. But later the government agreed to the suggestion of opposition leader Manohar Parrikar to increase it to 2,000 sq m in area.

Earlier, a single-dwelling owner or a builder had to undergo the drudgery of red tapism in securing an approval to their plans from several authorities. There will be an option for those going for a single dwelling house, to opt for the new system or follow the old." Now, the process will be streamlined as the owner can directly approach a notary architect/engineer.

After getting the plan of the proposed house from an architect/engineer, the owner will pay the processing fee to TCP and submit the documents required as per law, to the notary architect/engineer. Here, the notary architect/engineer will be like an officer of the TCP department, and as such he will scrutinize the plan from the town planning angle and verify whether it fulfills all the TCP regulations, sources said.

Once he puts the seal, the file will be submitted to the panchayat for a construction licence and other authorities like electricity department, etc, for a power connection. In fact, the government has already received applications from civil engineers and architects to play the new role, which of course, will be in addition to their own practice. "We have already received applications and we will be appointing notary architects/engineers soon," Puttaraju told TOI.

So, who can be a notary engineer or architect and what will be his responsibility? Besides the qualification, experience will also matter and preferably, the engineer/ architect will have to be a member of the Goa chapter of institute of engineers or institute of architects. The government is yet to fix the fee for obtaining the approval of the notary architect/engineer.

Puttaraju said the government is thinking of limiting the number of notary architect/engineers per taluka. For talukas like Canacona, Sattari, the number will be less while there will be more notary engineers/architects in talukas like Salcete and Bardez.