On-the-Spot Verification of Building Plans Started in Tamil Nadu’s Online Approval Process

In a move to reduce the time taken to get building plans approved, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday launched an online facility for real-time verification of building plans submitted for approval. It is intended to help counter the delays that come through manual reviews and reliance on outside software to upgrade the site.

Local bodies in the state are empowered to approve the construction of residential buildings with a total area of up to 10,000 square feet. As per the prevailing procedure, applicants must file their applications, documents and plans online through local bodies and approved engineers. Until now, however, this verification of such plans was not automated.

Previously the verification was done by software controlled by a private IT company that designed the system in the first place. That depended on external experts or the IT company itself running checks based on that AutoCAD, and it made the approval process very, very slow,” he said. Applicants frequently found themselves in limbo without timely feedback on errors or compliance issues in their submitted plans, further delaying construction schedules.

The new storing system is now all set up in all local bodies, and engineers can directly verify any building plans when uploaded. Any errors or failure to meet the requirements is highlighted in the software so that both the applicant and the approving authority can act accordingly without delay.

S. Ramaprabhu, South Zone Administrator, Indian Construction Experts Association, welcomed the initiative. “Back then, even though there were online approvals, plan reviews took a lot of time. With AutoCAD-based instant verification now, however, engineers can check the plans themselves, and the applicant and officials alike will know in a heartbeat if corrections are needed. This means a huge reduction in approval time,” he added.

Besides, all related documents are now being automatically forwarded to the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) by the system. This facilitates the issuance of requisite directions for obligatory project registration with RERA at the time of the very approval itself as per real estate regulations.

This software upgrade will add more transparency, increase efficiency, and help builders and homebuyers alike eliminate all the red tape delays, industry experts said.