Patna, July 22: The industries department is working on a plan to allow potential investors wanting to set up industry in Bihar to get required approvals at the click of a mouse.

Once the full-fledged system is in place, potential investors sitting anywhere in the world can get approval from all departments for their proposed projects online.

With big-ticket investments still a distant dream, department officials said the state government was moving ahead and devising new plans to make Bihar investor-friendly.

"There is already an operational system to get projects approved. However, the department is working towards strengthening the same and making it investor-friendly and hassle-free. The Department for International Development (DFID) has offered help for free and we are taking their assistance. The Centre has charted out 98 parameters aimed at ease of doing business and DFID is presently studying them. A diagnostic study is on and DFID has appointed two agencies, namely PwC and IPE Global, for the studies. One of the aims of the department is to ensure applications are able to move seamlessly across government departments," principal industries secretary Tripurari Sharan told The Telegraph.

The senior official said while PwC was doing an internal study of the industries department, DFID, also known as UKAID, had appointed IPE Global to do the same kind of diagnostic study on other state government departments.

"The ongoing studies will take some time but will be detailed and exhaustive. Once the reports are tabled, the department will work towards studying some of the best practices available in the country. The idea behind these studies is to develop and get a status report on all the 98 parameters on ease of doing business. Based on these studies, the department will move forward and develop a concrete procedure aimed at many things, including an easy and hassle-free approval process," the official said.

At present, the approval process in the state is quite cumbersome, with investors compelled to run from one department's table to the other to be able to set up a unit in Bihar.

The department though has tried and made the process a bit easier by setting up Udyog Mitra, a wing within the industries department, to provide all kinds of assistance to potential investors.

"Problems still exist and there are complaints too. However, once this system is created, investors will not have to worry regarding approvals anymore. They will be able to sit anywhere in the world and be sure the department will approve their projects online after verification. We do hope the whole system is ready soon ," Bihar Industries Association (BIA) vice-president Sanjay Goenka told The Telegraph.