Now, Low-Risk Building Plans To Be Cleared Within 48 Hrs In UP

It was in October last year that the Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government introduced an online system to approve building maps for various housing boards across the state. While the aim was to give clearances within a few hours, the progress here has been slow.

Tracking the existing lag

According to the state's Online Building Plan Approval System website, of the 33 active housing boards, nearly half of them take over 200 hours to give clearance to building maps. The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) is among the highest time-taking boards, and takes approximately 670 hours. On the other hand, there are only two boards that have taken under 60 hours to complete this task – the Agra Development Authority (49 hrs) and the Mathura-Vrindavan Authority (53 hrs).

Towards faster clearances

To ensure speedy approvals, the state’s housing and urban planning department has come out with new directives that are expected to simplify the approval process of both low-risk and high-risk building maps. These could automatically process applications as approved or rejected based on the submission.

The low-risk plans will be cleared within 48 hours, even if the board fails to scrutinise them. Low-risk properties are residential plots that measure up to 2,000 square metre, located in authority-sanctioned localities. Such properties are used for individual housing purposes.

For high-risk building plans, the deadline has been set at 30 days. In case the authority fails to approve the online building map in 30 days, it will automatically be cleared by the online system. High-risk properties are the ones that have not been sanctioned by the authority and can be institutional, industrial or commercial. These maps require additional approvals, from different departments such as fire, industries, etc.

New guidelines have also been announced for the applicants. For those who fail to submit the fee demanded by the authority for submission of the building map within seven days, their applications will stand rejected. Earlier, the boards could extend this deadline, but not anymore.