GURGAON: Following in the footsteps of MCG, Haryana Urban Development Authority(Huda) too is going fully digital for approving building plans. A team of Huda officials from Panchkula visited the MCG headquarters on Tuesday to learn about the paperless approval system.

Under the MCG's onlinebuilding plan approval system, an applicant does not have to submit any hard copy of documents to the civic body at any stage. All approvals are given online. An applicant can check the status of a file online, and receives a soft copy of the approved map through email.

Huda had introduced the online building plan approval system in November 2016, but applicants had to submit hard copies of the map for approval. The existing online system of Huda is mainly helpful for tracking the status of the file online.

Sub divisional officer (survey) JS Beniwal, who was part of the team, said Huda's online approval of the building plan system was different from that of MCG. "We wanted to learn MCG's online process to adopt best practices," said Beniwal.

The Haryana government has been trying to implement the online building plan system for quite some time, and a policy guideline was prepared in May 2009. After seven years of trial and error, the state managed to come up with an error-free software —Online Approval of Building Plan — and a notification of the system's implementation was issued on June 15, 2016.

Huda introduced it in November 2016 with an objective to cut short the time of approval.

 For carrying out any construction on plots in Huda sectors and the land allotted by the urban development body, an applicant has to get a building plan approved from the estate officer concerned. "Earlier, a committee used to scrutinise the building plan with the help of representatives from the estate officer and the engineering wing," said a Huda official.

Under the existing online building plan approval system, architects submit the drawings in CAD format to Huda through its website by logging in with the user ID of an architect who is registered with the development body. If the plan is technically approved by the autoDCR (automatic development control rule), a printout of the plan bearing signatures of the architect and the plot owner along with required documents should be submitted. In MCG, the applicant does not need to submit hard copies of documents at any stage.