Automated Building Approval System Launched by CDA

ISLAMABAD: To geotag all legal and unauthorized commercial buildings within its purview, the Capital Development Authority (CDA)'s Building Control Section South has started a preliminary survey. This information will initially be used within the CDA office, but later it will be publicly accessible on the CDA website. Building bylaw enforcement in Zones IV and V, which include private housing societies and unplanned regions falls under the responsibility of the BCS South. Previously, no centralized or automated system existed, and building information was only available in physical files. The field survey teams are currently present, utilizing Google Maps to tag the locations of buildings and add pertinent information.

 After completion, every aspect of commercial and residential buildings, including their size, condition, ownership, and legal status, will be electronically accessible. The Chairman of the CDA, Captain (R) Noor ul Ameen Mengal, has declared that he wants to reduce human intervention and move processes online, according to Director BCS South Muhammad Shafi Marwat. He reaffirmed the creation of teams and the ongoing geo-tagging survey of buildings to find and stop illicit development. The process for approving building plans has been automated in response to delays-related complaints from the public.

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Prior to now, plot owners had to submit their plans for approval to the housing societies' offices, which caused delays in getting the cases to the CDA. Building plans submitted to society offices are automatically forwarded to the relevant BCS unit for proactive follow-up under a system that has been devised. It is pertinent to mention here that previously the CDA has made a similar attempt but couldn’t really make things happen on the ground.