Bhubaneswar, Jan. 1: The municipal corporation today formally assumed the power to approve building plans within the corporation limits. This power was earlier vested with the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA).

However, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will approve plans for houses with a height of 15 metres or less and constructed within 2,000sqm land.

It is also empowered to allow land development proposals for land measuring up to one acre.

While the areas in the BMC limits will come under the civic body's jurisdiction for plan approval, houses in areas beyond the BMC limits will have to get their plan approved by the BDA.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena told The Telegraph: 'Earlier, the plan approval was being done the BDA. Now, we will handle it. We hope the city planning and the plan approval will go hand-in-hand.'

Senior municipal planner Bandita Mohapatra, who has been appointed as the head of the planning cell in the BMC, said: 'There will be better coordination now with the planning cell coming to the corporation.'

Interestingly, the BMC has no space to accommodate the planning cell and it will now temporarily operate from a building adjacent to the State Urban Development Authority.

Sources said the permanent office of the planning cell is likely to function from BMC Bhawani Mall in Saheed Nagar.

In the joint venture project, a major portion of the commercial space from the BMC's share is still lying unutilised.

BMC's senior councillor and chairman of the standing committee on finance Seikh Nizamuddin said: 'We have nearly 85,000 house holdings in the city under the holding tax net, but many are not included. As the planning cell comes to the BMC, now we can have the exact number of holdings in the city. It will help us in getting more revenue.'

Speaking on the plan approval process, the mayor said: 'Just like the people were doing it when the BDA was taking care of approvals, they now have to go to the office of the designated private agency, either in BDA Market complex in Chandrasekharpur or at BDA Commercial Complex in K-7 Kalinga Nagar.'

The private agency will work as the process manager and provide field and technical verification of the building plan proposal. Once the verification certificate is okayed by the firm, the BMC will issue the plan approval. The entire process will take 60 days.'