BMC eyes better World Bank rank to help bring business

IF THE RANK GOES UP, BMC WILL BE ABLE TO GET EASY FUNDING FROM THE WORLD BANK FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

MUMBAI: On the World Bank’s index of cities with ease of doing business, Mumbai’s rank is likely to improve because of steps taken by it, hopes the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The civic body aims at getting promoted to a higher rank in the coming months from the current rank of 183. If the rank goes up, the BMC will be applicable to get easy funding from the World Bank for any of the upcoming mega infrastructure projects, said officials.

BMC chief Ajoy Mehta gave a presentation on the new reforms that the building proposal department of the civic body has witnessed under the ease of doing business to World Bank officials, where chief secretary, Swadhin Kshatriya, was also present, on BMC stated time, procedures and cost for approval of proposals have been reduced considerably for building proposals department that gives permission for construction. Mumbai is one of the major real estate markets in India.

To earn a greater position in terms of ranking, the BMC has cut down the number of various permissions from 40 to minimal of 10. The time earlier required for approval of a proposal has been cut down from 147 days to 42 days. Even the cost for approval of per cent to 2 per cent said officials

“The process has been put up online, which is giving good results and is also a transparent method for better development of the city We are looking at ranking higher than 183 and if this is achieved we will be applicable for easy funding from the World Bank for any of the mega projects,” said an official.

According to the data presented to the World Bank officials, there are about 163 new applications received by the building proposal department and 109 proposals have been approved, while the remain ing are in process. The time taken for approval of project, which is granting the developer with an intimation of disapproval (IOD) certificate, has been pegged at an average of 30 days in the first quarter of the year (January to March), whereas 11 days for pro posals put up in the second quarter