Over 2,400 statutory towns have online building permission system: Government

Dec 14,2021

As many as 2,471 statutory towns in the country have implemented online building permission system and the government has plans to ensure that it is in place across all such urban areas, Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.

In written reply to a question, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said his ministry is expediting the implementation of online building permission system in all statutory towns. 

"So far, 2,471 statutory towns have implemented online building permission system," he said.

Issuing of construction permits is a state subject, he said, adding that the central government has an advisory role in this matter. 

In order to specify the features of online building permission system, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had released guidelines in 2016, the minister said. 
Replying to a question on whether the government has any plan to ensure that the online building permission system is implemented across all cities at the earliest,
Puri said, "Yes." 

He said the government has made concerted efforts for improving the country's ranking in construction permits indicator of the World Bank's Doing Business Report (DBR). 

"World Bank used to assess Delhi and Mumbai for DBR. In these cities, reforms have been implemented to minimize human interactions, improve transparency, reduce the number of procedures, time and cost involved in getting the construction permits," he said.

According to him, as a result of reforms implemented in Delhi and Mumbai, the country's rank in construction permits indicator of DBR improved from 185 in DBR2017 to 181 in DBR-2018, 52 in DBR-2019 and 27 in DBR-2020. Delhi and Mumbai have become lighthouse cities for reforms in construction permits, he added.