Bhubaneswar, July 1: The housing and urban development department has sought to make the building plan approval process simpler.

The department today proposed that buildings coming up on pre-approved land would not require the approval of the development authority concerned.

In a draft proposal, for which a stakeholders' meet was organised today at Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) office, senior officials of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) said that for land area up to 5,000 square feet, architects or recognised technical persons can give the approval for the low-risk buildings.

Earlier, the applicants had to run to the plan approval section of the BDA and the BMC to get their building plans approved, irrespective of the size of the building.

The present move will lessen the plan approval burden on the development authority and the municipal corporation, making the issue of no-objection certificate simpler and faster after the construction of the structure. In the next phase, the authorities are planning to bring in an automated information technology-based software for the purpose.

"The present move will save a lot of time for the people as well as the authority. The process will be automated using a software so that people can apply online and get their approval within a stipulated period of time," said an official present at the meeting.

"This is a good move by the development authority to simplify the process of getting building plan approval. Getting building plan approval was so far a headache for the common man. The BDA should now concentrate on introducing the online process at the earliest," said Nayapally resident Bedant Mohanty.

It is expected that these draft rules will bring in more professionalism into the trade as any architect or firm from across the country can take part in the building plan approval process in near future.