VISAKHAPATNAM: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has significantly improved its building plan approval process over the past two months. Under the online building approval system introduced in 2016, permissions must be granted within 15 days, including notifying applicants of any deficiencies in their submissions.
Previously, the system was plagued by delays. Only 12% of shortfall notifications were communicated within the first seven days, while 88% were issued during the second week, primarily on the 13th, 14th, and 15th days.
This left applicants with insufficient time to address the deficiencies. Similarly, final building approvals were slow, with only 20% processed in the first week, and 80% delayed to the second week or beyond.
Recent reforms have yielded notable improvements. Currently, 71% of applications are approved within the first week, with only 29% carried over to the second week. Furthermore, 32% of shortfall notifications are now issued in the first week, reducing the proportion of second-week notifications to 68%. The GVMC processes an average of 5,000 to 6,000 building plan approvals annually from all eight zones of the city.
GVMC commissioner Dr P Sampath Kumar said the civic body analysed the approval process to the identify bottlenecks. “We observed that both shortfall notifications and building approvals were disproportionately concentrated in the second week, with 89% of shortfalls raised during the second week or the last few days of the 15-day window. We successfully reversed this trend by approving 71% of plans in the first week and ensuring 32% of shortfalls are communicated earlier,” he said.
He said GVMC has implemented a monitoring system to track file status and pinpoint delays at specific stages or officer levels. “The process is now fully systematised, ensuring expedited disposal of applications,” added the commissioner.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh govt is taking steps to further simplify the building and layout approval process. The govt recently approved a report from a committee formed to propose reforms in the town planning department. One of the key changes is that municipal department approval will no longer be required for building construction plans up to 15 metres in height (approximately four storeys).
According to officials, the new system will be operational from Dec 31. Seven committees were tasked with studying building permit processes in various states, visiting 10 states before submitting their recommendations.
Currently, builders seeking permissions often face delays spanning months due to the need to secure approvals from multiple departments. To address this, the govt is integrating all necessary approvals into a single-window system. The servers of various departments will be connected to the municipal administration department to streamline the process and ensure faster resolution of applications.
