Bhubaneswar, Aug. 23: The city development authority today organised a workshop for officials and stakeholders on the new online Building Plan Approval System that it has introduced here.

During the day-long workshop, officials of the International Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS) educated officials of the development authority and real-estate developers on the use of the online service and asked them to make efforts to pass on their knowledge to the ground level.

Form August 1, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority has made building plan approvals for both low-risk and high-rise buildings using the online system mandatory. Accordingly, it closed manual applications on July 31.

According to the new system, all applications for building plan approvals, renewals, addition or alteration relating to any plan will be received online through the Building Plan Approval System. "Since the process is new, the officials and the users need to be educated on the same," said a development authority official.

During today's workshop, officials of the ILFS, the development authority's financial advisor, introduced the participants to new system. They also received training on user management and registration, technical person registration, verification and validation and submission of applications online.

"It is important for our officials to have a good knowledge of the new system since they are the ones who will educate the users. We have already made operational a knowledge centre at Chandrasekharpur where anyone can go and get lessons on the new system," said development authority vice-chairman Krishan Kumar.

Real-estate developers took part in the workshop and said it was a revolutionary step to ease the process.

"The online system will save a lot of time and resources. I hope that the users will develop a working knowledge of the system soon and start using it extensively," said realtor Sangram Nayak.

Applicants have to visit www.bdabbsr.in and hit the Planning and Development tab to access the Building Plan Automation System. An auto-guided process will then guide the user to submit the application. The applicants can submit the form both to the civic body and the development authority using the link.

Sources said the housing and urban development department had decided to introduce the online service in eight more cities in the next phase. These include Puri, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Rourkela, Baripada and Balasore. In the final phase, it will cover all other cities of the state.