Bhubaneswar, July 3: Come August, residents will not have to sweat it out at corporation and development authority offices to get building plan approved as the housing and urban development department has decided to make the process online.

The technicians of Odisha Computer Application Centre have been asked to open a separate portal for the purpose.

Sources said the computer centre had already finished designing the portal with payment gateway system and had initiated a trial run of the same earlier this month. The system will be introduced first in Bhubaneswar and Puri.

"We have finished designing the portal and had undertaken a trial run. We have come across some technical glitches, which our technicians will fix. Once it is done, the portal will be launched officially. We hope to complete the job by the end of this month," said an official of computer centre.

The manual system is tiresome and a person has to go through seven steps to get the approval. The steps include obtaining land use permission, applying for building plan, receiving a field visit of officials, clearance from pollution control board, obtaining building permit and paying final fee.

The whole process takes nearly 90 days in the manual system. However, with the introduction of the online service, the users will get the job done in only 15 days, which includes field visits and final approval from the development and municipal authorities.

Residents have appreciated the decision. "The earlier process of getting the approval was tiresome and lengthy. We are ready to pay more money if they want, but the approval system should be easier. I hope the online system will prove beneficial for all," said Damana resident Rakesh Maharana.

The real-estate forums have also welcomed the step of the government to make the system online and easier as compare to the earlier one.

"This will not only save time but will also make the system transparent," said Umesh Pattnaik, president of Afford, a real-estate forum in the state.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Bhubaneswar Development Authority recently brought an amendment to the building plan approval system. According to the amendment, designated consultants or architects will have the power to provide the building plan approval up to a built up area of 5,000sqft.

A senior BDA official said that the process would be automated through software to help applicants get approval within a fixed time.

"Once a plan is uploaded on the portal, the public agencies including the pollution control board will be given a three-day time to raise objection or provide no objection to the plan," said the official.