Online building permit in Union Territories for the first time in Pondicherry....

Chief Minister Rangasamy yesterday launched the first-ever online building permit system for the entire Union Territory of Pondicherry in India.

The building permit system was launched in November 2019 by four city planning bodies in the Union Territory of Pondicherry through an online building permit system designed by the Pondicherry National Informatics Association (NIC). This method does not include software that automatically analyzes building drawings. The Pondicherry Urban and Rural Planning Department has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bangalore Institute for this purpose. Provided free software to automatically inspect building drawings. It also offered technical assistance to the Pondicherry National Informatics Center to integrate the software with the existing online building permit system.

In the first phase, 80% of the applications received from the organizing bodies have been completed. The work of attaching the software to automatically inspect the building drawings of the ground floor and residential buildings on the first floor has been completed.

Commenting on the project, Secretary Mahesh said, 'This initiative is the first of its kind in Pondicherry to facilitate business and promote transparency. It has been implemented for the first time in Puducherry at the Union Territory level. Licensed technicians registered with all City Planning Officers and City Planning Board in the Union Territory of Pondicherry are trained with this software to prepare building plans, submit applications and issue permits online.

The building permit process will be fully online. That is, all the work of submitting the application, reviewing the building drawings and applications, paying the fee and issuing the building permit will be done online. Without human intervention, the time limit for reviewing applications will be reduced. Transparency in the consideration of applications and the functioning of city planning committees will prevail.

Building mapping permits will be issued within 10 working days for two-storey residential buildings up to two dwellings, unless the local bodies, the public works department, the power sector and other departments require unrestricted sanitation. Departments have been given 21 days to issue a no-objection certificate. Failure by the departments to issue a no-objection certificate within this 21-day period will be deemed 'deemed to have been issued' and a building permit will be issued by the City Planning Board. "