Online approval for building plans in Punjab from January 15

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 12

The Punjab government will implement the online building plan approval system in all municipal bodies in the state from January 15.

This was announced by Minister for Local Bodies Navjot Singh Sidhu at a press conference here on Saturday.

The proposed Building Plan Management System would automate the end-to-end process from empanelment of architect, Online Documents Submission, Online Fee Payment, Architect Registration, Building Plan Approval, and Plinth Level Approval to Completion/Occupation Certificate across all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Punjab, the minister said.

Speaking about the potential from advertisement revenue, which he claimed remained unutilised during the previous governments, Sidhu said that the tender for advertisement in Ludhiana had gone for 27.54 crores for the first year.

“Which essentially means that for the nine year duration of the contract would fetch us 289 crores,’’ he said, adding that the revenue from advertisement contracts in Ludhiana was only 31 crore since 2007 till date.

Sidhu said compared to 18 crores that the government made from all the 168 local governments in Punjab last year, the government this year expects revenue between 150 to 200 crores. 

Sidhu said the tender for Jalandhar Municipal Corporation has been floated for 18 crores while Moga civic body that generated revenue of 30 lakh last years was expected to fetch a crore this year.

Also, Pathankot civic body tender, which went for Ra 20 lakh last year, fetched Rs 67 lakhs.

Out of 27.54 crore, Rs 23.34 crore is the amount for bidding and the remaining will be the interest.

Sidhu said these figures pertained only to areas within the municipal limits of towns and did not reflect on the untapped rural areas adjoining towns, which too witnessed big advertisement posters, banners, unipolar and other forms of advertisement. 

He said the department has closed advertisement on roof-top wraps and also roof-tops.