CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is framing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) wherein clearances for projects under ease of doing business is deemed to be given if officials or competent authorities failed to follow the time limit as prescribed by the Business Facilitation Act passed last year.
Official sources told Express that as per Section 12 of the Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act and Rule 13, five clearances are covered under the deemed approval category.
They include planning permission, building permit, factory plan approval, registration of establishments for employing building and other construction workers and no objection certificate from Fire and Rescue Services. It is learnt that a time limit has also been fixed for giving planning permission by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP).
For ordinary buildings, the time limit is 22 days. For special and multi-storied buildings, it is 33 and 66 days, respectively. Similarly, under the DTCP for giving clearance under hilly areas, the time limit is 66 days. Similarly, building permit applications under the local bodies and Greater Chennai Corporation have to be cleared by 14 days.
The approval for factory plans from the Directorate of Industrial Safety (DIS) should be given in 14 days, while No Objection Certificate from fire services department should be availed of within 15 days for non-multi storied buildings and 30 days for multi-storied buildings. Similarly, the statutory approval of electrical drawings from Tamil Nadu Electrical Inspectorate should take only five days.
As per the draft SOP for deemed approval, fortnightly meetings will be conducted by single window committee to scrutinise the application and after all the queries have been answered, the in-principal approval will be given by the committee.
The single window portal, which was inaugurated recently, will play a key role in the entire process. It will abide by the time limit stipulated under the Business Facilitation Act. A warning letter with a unique system-generated number and date will be provided to competent authorities.
If the authorities fail to pass final orders within the time-frame, the system will generate a list of clearances that fall under deemed category with a unique system-generated number to the nodal agency, which will later convene a meeting of Single Window Committee.
Later, permission is accorded with a unique system generated deemed approval number and date for deemed approval. This deemed approval will be valid till statutory approval is issued by the competent authority.
List of clearances covered
1. Planning permission
2. Building permit
3. Factory plan approval
4. Registration for employing building and construction workers
5. No Objection Certificate from fire and rescue services