Dawoud Al Hajiri, Chairman of Dubai Building Permit Development Committee on Sunday launched Dubai Building Permits App, which includes all procedures of the government departments for building permits.
The move is in line with the directives of the wise government to eliminate red tape and reduce government procedures and facilitate the customers, which bring happiness to all, and in implementation of the directives of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum to develop the procedures for building permits. The new App, a first of its kind in the region, is launched after a comprehensive review of the procedures of government departments in this regard, and is a first step on improvement and development.
The launching ceremony, held at Emirates Towers, was attended by members of the Dubai Building Permit Development Committee, which includes a number of departments and institutions: Dubai Municipality, Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Dubai Economic Development Department, Investment Corporation of Dubai, Etisalat Group, Trakhees (Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation), Dubai Financial Market, Dubai Creative Clusters Authority, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Dubai Civil Defence, Meraas Holding, Du, and the TECOM Group.
Al Hajiri stressed that the Dubai Building Permit Development Committee has taken many qualitative pioneering steps and procedures to improve the investment and construction climate, overcome obstacles and go a long way in creating an investment environment, facilitating procedures, adopting technology, innovation and creativity to facilitate the establishment of projects and help the growth and prosperity of the business sector and support its competitiveness.
“The Committee has developed the permit service and reduced the number of steps to only five, which is a global achievement by all internationally recognized standards in this field, aiming at achieving the directives of the wise leadership to eliminate the routine and reduce the government procedures and facilitate customers,” he said.
Al Hajiri explained that the achievement comes as a result of an ambitious effort, praising the cooperation of all concerned parties and all government departments and bodies, which was the main pillar for achieving this important achievement.
“Everyone expressed great understanding and showed utmost flexibility in reviewing their steps in the permit process, and reducing many of them, and to a large extent, they cooperated, without prejudice, to fulfill the basic requirements and standards as well as the security and safety requirements, which are primarily taken into account in order to ensure the protection of life and property in accordance with the highest international standards,” he pointed out.
Al Hajiri stressed that the smart App allows investors and developers to track the status of their applications and complete its procedures through a single screen. “It is integrated with all approval bodies involved in construction permits in Dubai and serves as a united system through which applications for permits are submitted and action is taken directly on these requests by all parties concerned with their own approvals,” he said.
“The App will enable the investor, the contractor and the consultant office to follow up on their permit status, and to an extent that each approval body will have to approve the request on its part within a record period of submission of the application in order to ensure fast processing of applications, and then issue permits in record time, once all the documents and papers required to be submitted by the consultant are in place,” Al Hajiri said, explaining that this App also covers free zones and special development areas.
Eng. Marwan Al Mohammed, member of the Committee, added that the App can be accessed via smart phones, in order to facilitate the customers and investors. “Through the App, one can know the status of the transaction of projects and buildings, in addition to the list of qualified contractors and consultants with Dubai Municipality as there are 6,000 registered contractors 500 consultants,” he said.
“The development of the unified electronic system will be part of the phase of unifying of building standards in the Emirate of Dubai, which will be one of the most distinguished building regulations, not only in the region but globally,” said Al Mohammed.
“This will be followed by another phase with the involvement of the private sector and real estate developers, in registering innovative new building materials, especially those that have high specifications, in line with Dubai’s trends in adopting the best international standards and practices and the government’s keenness to keep abreast of the global developments and updating the databases according to those developments,” he said.
“The registration process ensures the specifications of these materials, achieving the highest levels of security and safety of the structures, as well as their conformity with the health and environmental specifications taking care of the highest international standards of quality. The registration of these materials will also take into consideration the accuracy and speed at the same time,” said Al Mohammed.
It is worth mentioning that in his capacity as Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE had issued Resolution No. 3 of 2017 on the formation of the Dubai Building Permit Development Committee in the Emirate. The decision included a set of objectives for the committee, which includes raising the level of customer satisfaction by providing excellent services in the field of building permits, which will contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of the emirate in the global competitiveness indicators and ensuring the speed of completion of services related to issuing building permits by the concerned authorities through the development of systems, requirements and conditions, and facilitate procedures related to the issuance of such permits.
The decision gave the Committee the powers to learn about the best practices applied globally in issuing building permits, and to guide the development and simplification of procedures for issuing them at the emirate level and to contribute to supporting innovation and creativity through the development of regulations, requirements and conditions related to materials used in construction, forming subcommittees and working groups to determine the tasks, powers and duration of work, and use experienced and competent persons deemed appropriate.
