Bhubaneswar, Aug. 3: The development authority opened a building plan application centre at Samanta Vihar today to assist citizens, architects and technical persons in using the newly introduced online building plan-approval system.

The centre will help applicants file their building plan requests online - which was made mandatory by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority from Tuesday after stopping the manual system from July 31. The online plan approval system has been introduced under the BDA Common Application Form Rule, 2016.

"To overcome the problems, the citizens are bound to face since the online system is new to them, we will open the centre with experts to solve those," said the authority's vice-chairman Krishan Kumar.

With the new move, the authority will receive applications for both low-risk and high-risk structures in the city. Earlier, applicants for low-risk buildings would file applications with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and those for the high-risk structures to the development authority.

The aim is to ease the building plan approval system. Now, applications will be submitted online and the applicants will receive the no-objection certificates from various agencies in an instant on the portal.

The system will also shorten the time taken to approve or reject applications to one month from the earlier 80 to 90 days. "After the forms are submitted, a common inspection team consisting of officials from various government agencies will visit the site and analyse the layout plan and provide no-objection certificates," said an official.

Real estate developer Sangram Nayak said: "The system will bring in transparency and save time for the applicant. The earlier system was lengthy and tiresome. I hope people soon understand the new system and start using it extensively."

The real estate sector in the city is going through a transformation with enactment of various rules.