Bhubaneswar, April 13: The housing and urban development department has decided to make the building plan approval system online in seven more cities of the state.

At present, the online building plan approval system is in place only in Bhubaneswar and Puri. In the next phase, the system will be introduced in Berhampur, Sambalpur, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Rourkela, Baripada and Balasore. In the final phase, it will cover all other cities of the state.

Once the system is implemented, all the components related to building plan approval system would be integrated in an online portal ranging from filing of application by the applicant to obtaining no-objection-certificates and getting the final approval from the respective development authority.

Earlier, the applicants had to first apply to multiple agencies to get no-objection certificates for getting a building plan approval. The entire process was taking about 80 days, while in the recent system, it would be accomplished in a month.

All the cities those are selected to have the online system in place are the members of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme. "We have hired a consultant to design the module for the new system and asked it to submit a report by the end of April," said an official of the housing and urban development department.

He said that the system, which is already working in Puri and Bhubaneswar, would be replicated in seven other cities shortly. "The initiative has been taken to achieve the reform milestone stated under Amrut for the year 2016-17. The consultant will share the modules designed for the system after which we will introduce the same," said the official.

"The primary aim of the online system is to provide building plan approval without much delay. The earlier system was tardy and time consuming. The new one however would save a lot of time and money for people," said Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, adding that the system would be a game-changer for the other cities as well.

Real-estate developer Sangram Nayak also welcomed the move.