PANAJI
To speed up industrial clearances and make the process more transparent, the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (Goa-IDC) has announced that its technical clearance meetings will now be held every week instead of every two weeks. The meetings will also be open to stakeholders, replacing the earlier closed-door format.
This change is part of the Online Building Plan Approval System (OBPAS), which the GIDC describes as a major step towards faster, fair, and predictable approvals.
“Before 2023, technical clearance meetings were held once a fortnight. Under the new system, they are now held weekly, helping us make quicker decisions. The process, which was earlier limited to closed-door discussions, is now open to clients, engineers, and architects,” said GIDC Managing Director Pravimal Abhishek.
He added that a rule-based agenda has replaced the earlier discretionary approach, ensuring consistency and fairness. “Every deferral or rejection now includes recorded reasons, improving accountability,” he said.
These changes, he noted, have already shown results, with technical clearances rising from 76 between August and December 2022 to 160 between January and June 2023.
At an advanced workshop on preparing plans in line with OBPAS, architects, engineers, and other experts were given live demonstrations and briefed on the reforms that make the system rule-based and transparent.
OBPAS also allows applicants to pre-check building drawings for free before submission, offers a paperless workflow, and enables real-time tracking of applications. Built on the DIGIT technology stack, the system ensures scalability, reliability, and data security.
Further improvements include a Pre-Scrutiny Tool for automatic validation of plans, Design Standard Checks to ensure compliance, and a One-Cycle Review System to reduce repetitive scrutiny and shorten approval timelines.
