Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) will spend Sh30 million to upgrade the online construction permit application platform in its efficiency drive.
This follows complaints by developers last year that delays in the e-construction permit development applications system were adversely affecting stakeholders by prolonging time lines of implementing projects.
According to the County Fiscal Strategy Paper, the upgrade will be carried out in the next financial year ending June 30, 2022.
“The urban planning department in Nairobi plans to use Sh30 million in the financial year 2021/2022 for upgrade of the e-construction permit development applications system,” read the document.
The system handles development applications including building plans, change of user, extension of user, subdivision and amalgamation, advertisements, extension and renewal of lease.
It went online in July last year after pressure from players in the built industry following the system’s suspension in May to pave way for the development of a new system.
This was at the time when NMS Director-General Mohamed Badi announced the disbandment of both the Nairobi County government’s pre-technical committee and the Nairobi City County urban planning technical committee to give way for the formation of a single committee.
For a developer to be allowed to commence construction of any structure in Nairobi, they must first submit a plan through the e-construction portal and request for approval.
The documents are then be submitted to the technical committee which scrutinises the application to determine if the building plan meets all the requirements. If all terms a met, then the developer is asked to pay for the approval thereafter a permit is then granted.
The application comes in several copies which have to be stamped one at a time with four stamps for each plan which is time consuming. – Business Daily
