The Madhya Pradesh Government has overhauled the way building permissions are granted in its urban areas. From now on, submitting a building map will not be enough. Applicants will have to mandatorily submit the GPS co-ordinates - latitude and longitude - of every corner of their plot with complete geo-tagging. The new rule has been enforced under the Automated Building Plan Approval System ABPAS-3.0 by the Urban Administration and Development Department. In a significant tech upgrade, ABPAS-3.0 has been integrated with the state's powerful GIS platform GARUD - GIS Enabled Urban Governance for Urban Administration.

 

Developed by the Urban Development and Housing Department, GARUD collates base maps and municipal data from all 413 urban local bodies in the state and integrates it with e-Nagarpalika, SAMPADA and SAMAGRA. The integration does two things at once. First, it speeds up approval, and second, it enables digital surveillance. The platform compares the sanctioned building plan with property surveys and GIS maps to detect deviations in built-up area, plot size, number of floors and land use. In a major reform notified on July 31 by Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Dubey, the government has removed mandatory

 

NOCs from housing co-operative societies, Nazul and electricity departments and made the entire process online. Now, if any departmental comment is still required, the civic body itself will forward the case within seven days, and the concerned department will have to reply within 21 days. NOCs from the Airports Authority of India and the National Monuments Authority will be needed only if GARUD’s GIS check shows the plot falls within airport colour-coded zones or protected monument zones. For plots up to 2000 sq ft, the Government has introduced a provision for deemed permission on fulfillment of prescribed norms, a move expected to give major relief to small homeowners. The system will also automatically flag constructions where builders add extra floors beyond the approved plan, tightening the noose on illegal constructions.