Simplification of Building License Process:

An Initiative by Mysore City Corporation

Hijam Eskoni Devi

Rohit Nadkarni









Administrative Staff College of India
Bella Vista, Hyderabad 500 082, Andhra Pradesh, India
ABSTRACT

The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has undertaken an innovative initiative to simplify the procedures
for issue of building construction license. Due to this initiative, the whole license issuing process has
become efficient and effective, and building construction licenses are issued to the applicants on the
same day. The initiative has led to reduction in time taken for approval, reduction in trips undertaken
for license approval and increase in the revenue. This document presents the process and
experiences of the Mysore City Corporation in implementing its initiative. It also present the lessons
learnt and its replicability in other Indian cities.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This documentation is a part of the good practices documentation, undertaken by the Urban
Governance Area at Administrative Staff College of India. We are Grateful to Shri K N Chandrasekhar,
Commissioner Mysore City Corporation, for extending valuable support and facilitating data collection
and discussions with key officials at MCC. We are also thankful to Shri M Nanjunda Swamy, Assistant
Statistical Officer and Shri R Shesha, J unior Town Planner at Mysore City Corporation. However, the
usual disclaimer applies.
Introduction
Mysore is the second largest city in Karnataka, India
with a population of 7,85,800 and the number of
households is 1,65,815 (2001). Mysore was the
former capital of the Kingdom of Mysore and the
state government has accorded Mysore the status of
Heritage City. To preserve the heritage character of
the city, the master plan of the city largely permits
low-rise development.
Mysore is the city of historical and cultural
significance. For this reason, Mysore is one of the 63
cities from across the country that are eligible for
receiving funds under the J nNURM programme of
Government of India.
The municipalities in India through their respective
municipal Acts are responsible for issuing building
construction license for regulating new construction
activity within their respective jurisdictions. Getting a building license is a very time consuming
process, which involves frequent visits to the municipal office, speed money and hiring of middlemen.
During the process the applicant or the middleman hired makes a number of visits to the
municipalities and the other concern departments and on an normal basis this takes a week long time
and in some cases even extends to 45 days.
The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) used to follow similar time consuming procedures for issue of
building construction license. However, the MCC undertook a reform initiative and simplified the
building construction license issuing process in J anuary 2005 mainly due to the increased
dissatisfaction of the citizens. This reform initiative, by introducing a single window system has
reduced the building license issuing time to from 7 days to 15-30 minutes per application. In Mysore,
majority (80 %) of the buildings proposed in the city are Ground and Ground +1 residential
structures.

The reform Initiative
The MCC has been undertaking reforms over the last decade for improving citizen services. The MCC
used to receive around 500 visitors per day for various services. Majority of the visits were for birth
and death certificates, and about twenty applicants on an average used to visit for the building
construction license application/ follow-up. The MCC in 1997 initiated the computerization of birth
and death records and issued computerized certificate through a single window system. This
initiative benefited the citizen demanding the birth and death certificates as the process time has
been reduced and the certificate is issued on the day of filing the application. But the applicants of
building licenses required a weeklong process for getting building license by making frequent visits
for follow-up. This resulted in considerable citizens dissatisfaction. To get a building construction
license the applicant had to go through a weeklong process in the MCC. On 31st J anuary 2005 the
then joint commissioner started the initiative of issuing building license within 15-20 minutes through
a single window system in the citizen service center at MCC, for all residential Ground and Ground +
1 structures with plot size not exceeding 4000sq. ft.

Situation Before the Initiative
The normal procedure for getting a building license approval is as follows (Fig 1):
1. Filing of application with necessary documents at Application Receiving Counter
The applicant files his/her application to the application-receiving counter at the Mysore city
corporation office with necessary documents. The documents required for application are:
Filled Application Form
Khata Certificate
Property Tax Paid Certificate / Self Assessment
Title Deed / Possession Certificate
Affidavit
Indeminty Bond
Building Plan 1 + 6 copies (1:100 scale)
2. Forwarding of application to the Deputy Director Town Planning (DDTP)
The application that is received in the Application Receiving Counter at the MCC is forwarded
to the Town Planning Department. The application is sent to the Deputy Director Town
Planning (DDTP) for his signature of receiving of the application.
3. Forwarding of application to the concerned J unior Town Planner (J TP)
The DDTP forwards the application to the concerned J unior Town Planner (J TP). There are
three constituencies in Mysore city and each J unior Town Planner is assigned with one
constituency.
4. Verification of application and site inspection by J TP
The J TP verifies the application for the above-mentioned documents and check if the plans
are as per the building byelaws.
Scale of the Drawing
Dimensions Indicated
Set Backs
Ground Coverage
FAR & Building Height
Signature of the Engineer

After verification of all the required documents and plans, the J TP conducts site inspection.

5. If everything complies, the application is forwarded to the DDTP for his signature.
6. On approval by the DDTP, the Chalan is issued for the payment of fees by the Town Planning
Section and is handed to the applicant.
7. After receiving the Chalan, the applicant has to pay the fees to the Corporation Bank Counter at
the MCC.
8. On payment of the fees, the fee receipt is submitted to the Town Planning Department.
9. Approval of the application by J unior Town Planer
10. Application forwarded to DDTP for signature
11. The license is sent to the dispatch section after approval for the applicant to collect.
Figure 1: Building license process prior to reform initiative


1. Filing of application with necessary documents at
Application Receiving Counter














3. Deputy Director Town Planning (DDTP) forward the
application to the concerned J unior Town Planner (J TP)
5. Forwarded for approval of DDTP
6. On approval, Chalan issued for payment of fees by the
Town Planning Section
8. Submission of Chalan to Town Planning Department
9. Approval of the application by J unior Town Planer
10. Application forwarded to DDTP for signature
11. Dispatch Section
Rejected
If application is not in order If application is in order
4. Verification of application and site inspection by J TP
Process
Duration
- Min. 7 days
- Max. 45 days
2. Forwarding of application to the Deputy Director Town
Planning (DDTP) Section
7. Payment of the Chalan to Corporation Bank Counter
Issues and concerns:
The main issues with the old system are:
1. Lengthy process
2. Illegal water connection
Introduction of Reform Initiative
The MCC has initiated the process to overcome the issues of the old system of issue of building
construction license. The lessons from the successful single window initiative of issue of birth and
death certificates were taken into consideration while designing the new initiative.
The introduction of the new system has undergone a long process of discussion and changes in the
whole set up and process that are explained as follows:
1. Meetings and discussions
Meeting was held between the Commissioner, the Town Planner and the Assistant Statistical
Officer (In-charge of e-governance) of the Mysore City Corporation concerned with the
dissatisfaction of the citizen about the old system of issue of building construction license.
The discussion started with the lessons learned from the success of reform in the issue of
birth and death certificate that was issued in the citizen service center.
2. Decision-making
After a long process of meetings and discussions, decision was taken to shift the building
construction license issuing process for all residential Ground and Ground + 1 structures with
plot area not exceeding 4000sq. ft from the town planning department to the citizens service
center (Apart from this, the town planning department will continue to issue building
construction licenses for rest of the categories Residential above G+1, commercial
buildings, etc).
3. Deputing of staff
Shifting the operation form town planning department to citizens service center also involved
deputing the staff from the town planning department to the center. An IT professional for
operation of the computer program is outsourced from the market.
The MCC was provided with an IT professional by the Municipal Administration Department
and with its help they developed customized software programme to scrutinize the building
license, to calculate the fee payable and to manage its database (in turn help to speed up
the entire process). The entry format for this software programme was developed in regional
language for better communication and understanding for its citizens. (Refer annexure I for
the data entry software programme snapshots). To operate this software programme the
MCC outsourced the operation job to a private IT professional with knowledge of both
English and regional language (Kanada).

The entire procedure requires:
(1) The J unior Town Planner
(2) The IT professional for operation
(3) The Accountant/ clerk
The IT professional is the only person recruited, while the J unior Town Planner is deputed
from the Town Planning Department and the Accountant is a bank employee who operates
the counter for general operation at the Corporation.
At present there are two J unior Town Planner (J TP) at MCC. After the initiative each J TP is
given a three days term on an alternate day routine at the citizens service center in a week
so that the work in the Town Planning Department also do not suffer. When they are at the
citizen service center they look after the issue of the building license of buildings which
covers under the new initiative (i.e. all residential Ground and Ground + 1 structures with
plot area not exceeding 4000sq. ft) and in the Town Planning Department they take care of
the other matters which are not covered under the initiative. There are three constituencies.
Each J TP is allotted with one of the constituency and they take care of the matters concerned
with the respective constituency (The MCC had three J TP positions, one J TP was recently
transferred and the position is yet to be filled).
4. Delegation of power
As per the Municipal Act, the commissioner has the authority to delegate power & duties, in
case of MCC, under the new initiative, the commissioner gave the J unior Town Planner the
authority to approve the building construction license. Under this, the J unior Town Planner
was given the responsibility for receiving the application, verification of documents and the
plans as per norms / checklist, and approve the license (includes signing the issued license).
5. Change in Fee structure
Before the initiative MCC used to charge only a license fee, which included ground rent,
debris removal charge, compound fee, betterment charge, property tax (arrears if any) and
slum development charge. As part of this new initiative MCC also included service fees
(Service charges) as a charge for processing the license quickly, road-cutting fee and fee for
domestic water connections. The inclusion of fees for the domestic water connections, while
obtaining the building construction license helped the MCC to reduce the number of illegal
water connection for construction purpose and also have lead to the increase in city
corporation revenue. There is an increase of 15% income in the city corporation revenue as
per discussion with the officials. In year 2006-2007 Rs. 116.06 lakhs was the amount
collected on service charge, water connection fees and road cutting fee (about 20 per cent of
the total revenue generated in 2006-07).
Table 1: Revenue generated before and after the initiative
Year Number of applicants Revenue generated (in lakhs)
Before the Initiative
2003-2004 5767 Rs.157.74
2004-2005 4827 Rs.193.60
After the Initiative
2005-2006 4622 Rs. 331.00
2006-2007 4208(total), out of which 3406 is under
the citizen service centre
Rs. 609.35

Objective of the reform:
The main aim of the initiative was to reduce the processing time and to deliver efficient and effective
services.

Situation after the initiative:
After the new initiative the process of getting a building license has changed. The initiative has made
obtaining the license of building permission easier and less time consuming. The steps are as follows
(Fig 2):
1. Filing of application to the J unior Town Planner (J TP) in the Citizens Service Centre
The applicant directly files the application along with the necessary documents to the J TP in
the Citizens Service Centre.
2. Verification of Document & the Building plans as per the byelaws and the checklist by the J TP
The steps for verification of the application are:
Step1: The J TP first checks if it fulfills the first requirement i.e. Building should be Ground or
G + 1 residential structure, Plot area > 4000 sft . If the application fulfills the requirement of
step1 then only it proceeds to step 2.
Step 2: The documents required are:
Filled Application Form
Khata Certificate
Property Tax Paid Certificate / Self Assessment
Title Deed / Possession Certificate
Affidavit
Indeminty Bond
Building Plan 1 + 6 copies (1:100 scale)

Step 3: The J TP had to verify the document and check if the plans are as per the building
byelaws.
Scale of the Drawing
Dimensions Indicated
Set Backs
Ground Coverage
FAR & Building Height
Signature of the Engineer

3. IT operator takes file from J TP, enters the data and then Chalan is issued
J TP after checking the documents, gives the file to the IT operator to enter the data and the
fees is calculated automatically and chalan is generated. The steps are:
Data entered as per checklist & verified
Computer Calculates the Fees
Print generated (refer Annexure II)
Chalan signed & Issued by J TP

4. Payment of Chalan to Corporation Bank Counter at MCC Citizens Service Centre
The Chalan issued from the citizen service centre is then taken by the applicant and then the
applicant has to pay the amount in the Corporation Bank Counter at the MCC

5. After receipt of fess payments, IT operator prints the license and license is signed and issued by
the J unior Town Planner.


The Single Window System
The applicant, J TP and IT operator
The J TP Verifying the Documents

Figure 2: Building license process before and after the initiative.








The awareness Campaign
The success of new initiative also depended on the communication strategy adopted. In MCC, to
make its citizens aware of this new initiative, the MCC launched an extensive citizens awareness
campaign through advertisements in local newspapers, local television channels and also putting up
display boards in corporation office. The campaign was carried out in two languages that are English
and Kanada. The MCC after two year of launching the initiative is still continuing with its awareness
campaign through various media available and is also closely monitoring the initiative.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Procedure before the initiative Procedure after the initiative
Place of operation- MCC Town Planning Department Place of operation- MCC Citizens Service
Centre
1. Filing of application with
necessary documents at
Application Receiving Centre at
MCC
3. Deputy Director Town Planning
(DDTP) forwards to the concerned
J unior Town Planner (J TP)
5. Forwarded for approval of DDTP
6. Chalan issued for payment of
fees by the Town Planning Section
7. Payment of the Chalan to
Corporation Bank counter at MCC
9. Approval by application by
J unior Town Planer
10.Application forwarded to DDTP
for signature
11. Dispatch Section at MCC
2. Forwarding of application to the
DDTP in Town Planning Dept.
Rejected
If application is not in order If application is in order
4. Verification of application and
site inspection by J TP
Process Duration- Min. 7 days, Max. 45 days
Process Duration- 1 day (30 Minute)
1. Filing of application with
necessary documents to the J unior
Town Planner (J TP) in the Citizens
Service Centre
2. Verification of Document & the
Building plans as per the byelaws
and the checklist by the J TP
3. IT operator takes file from J TP, enters
the data and then Challan is issued.
- Data entered as per checklist & verified
- Computer Calculates the Fees
- Print generated (refer Annexure II)
- Challan signed & Issued by J TP
If application
is in order
If application is
not in order,
asked to resubmit
with required
changes
4. Payment of Chalan to Corporation
Bank counter at MCC Citizens Service
Centre
5. After receipt of fess payments, IT
operator prints the license and license is
signed and issued by the J unior Town
Planner
8. Submission of the Chalan to
Town Planning Department
A lot of campaign works were also conducted for the awareness of the citizen regarding the new
initiative in the form of advertisement in the MCC, announcement in the local TV channels, and
newspapers.
Figure 3: The awareness campaign launched by Mysore City Corporation











Table 2: Situation before and After the Initiative

Before the initiative
After the initiative
Time taken Minimum of 7 day and Maximum
45 days
15 to 20 minutes
Place Town planning department at
MCC
Citizen service center at MCC
Computer database - Creation of computer database
Average license fee Four Thousand (2004-2005) Eight Thousand (2006-07)
Number of Visit
Required
Minimum 3 Maximum 1 (if the documents are in
order and if he is ready with the fee
amount)

Table 3: Impact of the initiative
Advantages: Disadvantage:
Significant reduction in time for
processing the license and is citizen
friendly
Reduction in number of visits required
per individual for getting the license
Increase in city corporation revenue
Reduction in unauthorized water
connection
Computer database generated
Good will created by the Corporation
There is a possibility of default, as there
is no site verification.

Limitations:
Like any other new initiative, the Mysore initiative also has few limitations.
1. The main limitation is that the initiative is applicable only to residential ground and ground+1
structures on vacant sites.
2. Discussion with the staff indicated that the initiative has reduced substantial time in issue of
building construction license, but since there in no site inspection carried out before the
issuing of building license, the number of violation cases may increase. Few such cases were
also reported to the MCC and currently the citizens have taken the issue of violation in these
cases to court. There is also a sense of fear that, the no site inspection procedure followed,
can lead to increase in number of violation in byelaws.
3. The workload has also increased, as they have to do the issue of license in the Citizens
Service Centre and in addition have to work in the Town Planning Department for their
respective constituency for issue of license of the buildings that doesnt fall under the
category of the new initiative.

Lessons Learnt and Replicability
This process of issuing license within 30 minutes not only saved the time of the applicant but also led
to increase in the municipal revenue. Incorporating other charges and fees while issuing the building
construction license like the water connection deposit / fee, has also resulted in reduction of
unauthorized water connection in the city as per discussion with the officials of MCC. For
implementation of such initiative there is also IT skill sets that are required to develop customized
software programme for operation, and even MCC feels a need of hiring a permanent IT professional,
but with the current demand in IT sector, the remuneration for a IT professional is higher than the
salary of the municipal commissioner which creates a hurdle for hiring and hence it is outsourced in
the case of MCC.
The MCC initiative is currently limited only for ground and ground +1 residential structures. For
Ground + 1 structure one does not require structural drawing and clearance from other departments
like fire, Urban Development Department, airport authority, etc. hence the process is simpler. Once
the building goes more than two floors there are other complex procedure that one has to go
through before even applying for building license like obtaining NOC from concern department etc.
MCC is planning even to simply the issue of building construction license for more than G+1
structures. The current Mysore initiative is a very effective and has efficient process for issue of
building construction license and such initiative can be easily replicated in small and medium cites
where majority of the building proposed are G+1 structure.
Annexure I

Customized programme for Data Entry
Window for entering the personal information about the applicant and the proposed building

























Window for entering the proposed building details for compliance and for calculating the Fees

Annexure II

Checklist and Fees to be paid Generated by the software programme

Annexure III

Service fees, which is based on plot size:
20 ft. X 30 ft. plot area = Rs 500
30 ft. X 40 ft. plot area = Rs 1000
40 ft. X 60 ft. plot area = Rs 1500
above 2400 sq.ft. plot area = Rs 2000

Road cutting fees,which is based on plot size:
20 ft. X 30 ft. plot area = Rs 300
30 ft. X 40 ft. plot area = Rs 500
40 ft. X 60 ft. plot area = Rs 1000
above 2400 sq.ft. plot area = Rs 1500

Fees for domestic water connection is Rs. 4710 and it is non refundable.

Fines for non compliance
For building without license- Rs. 5000/-
Fees for Violation of setbacks:
upto 5% = Rs 250 per sq. m. of violated area
5% to 15% = Rs. 500 per sq. m. of violated area
15% to 25 % = Rs 1000 per sq. m. of violated area




Annexure IV
Checklist Item and Fees / Charges

Check list:
Documents Application form, Khata Certificate (revenue details), Sale deed, Property Tax /
Self Aseesment, Affidavit, Indemnity Bond.
Plan at 1:100 Scale 1 (tracing) +6 (ammonia print) Copies
Set backs (Comparison of byelaw and provided)
Site area and built up area
Floor area ratio
Height of building

Charges Calculated for:
Betterment charges
Services charges
Slum development charges 50 paisa per sq. m.
License fees Rs.112 per sq. m.
Ground rent: Rs. 240 per year
Debris removal charges Rs. 65 per sq. m.
Compound fees
Road cutting charges
Annexure V
Sample Copy of License and Application Form
Sample Copy of the License Issued

























Sample of Application fo