An open gathering held with consultants, contractors dealing with Building Permits Division

84 building permit services are provided online

EHS standards set as prerequisite of obtaining building permits

45 urban planning services provided set to be offered online

Senior engineer designated to receive customers, complaints and attend to technical inquiries

Abu Dhabi City Municipality: 19 April 2015: In the context of the commitment of the Town Planning Sector at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality to enhance communication with strategic partners, an open gathering was held with property consultants, contractors and developers operating in Abu Dhabi Emirate to examine the procedures of building permits, standards of environment, health & safety (EHS), and urban planning services. The forum was attended by several representatives of consultancy offices, contractors and property developers based in Abu Dhabi city. This periodic gathering is held in implementation of the vision of the municipal system of Abu Dhabi and the priorities set to enhance the cooperation with consultants & contractors in implementing the highest global standards for undertaking various projects.

Engineer Salah Awad Al Sarraj, Acting Executive Director of Town Planning Sector, said: "The Abu Dhabi City Municipality is keen on forging strong partnerships with real estate consultants, contractors and developers in realization of the Municipality's mission of providing superior , effective and customers-focused municipal services through engaging all stakeholders in driving the development process.

"Through these gatherings, the Town Planning Sector at Abu Dhabi City Municipality is seeking to step up the strategic partnerships and contribute in the realization of Abu Dhabi Strategic Plan 2030. The Sector, comprising Urban Planning Division, Spatial Data Division, Building Permits Division, and EHS Division, is rendering all services and applications required for the success of all building projects through implementing the rules, regulations and approved building codes besides benefiting from the standard international practices to ease the processing of transactions at world-class standards. It is also seeking to introduce the specialized electronic programs in the public interest and to nurture a healthy environment as well as appropriate and sound working conditions for all parties.

"The continuous improvements in procedures of issuing various building permits are based on feedbacks and customers satisfaction surveys regularly conducted by the Municipality. Accordingly, a review is made to procedures, challenges, risks, and shortcomings and consequently improvement plans and solutions are developed to ensure the delivery of excellent services and improve customers satisfaction rating. Recently, the Sector has reviewed, controlled and documented all licensing procedures and explained them to consultants and contractors dealing with the Building Permits Division in several workshops held at the premises of the Municipality.

Among the key improvements recently introduced is the e-signature on layouts & building permits, upgrading the mechanism of endorsing layouts, integrating the review of Civil Defence layouts in the architectural review in respect of residential projects, integrating the architectural and constructional reviews of modifications & additions, integrating the endorsement of entrances with the architectural endorsement, and directing auditing (construction & architect engineers) to issue conditional approvals coupled with comments about modifications to be adjusted during the construction; which will accelerate the process of endorsing projects and the issuance of building permits.

In an opening speech delivered to the gathering, Engineer Khalfan Sultan Al Nuaimi, Director of Building Permits, called on consultancy offices and contractors to step up their cooperation and implement the procedures aimed establishing communication with the Municipality for benefiting from the numerous and smooth services rendered by the Municipality in various fields related to town planning, be it in terms of building permits, EHS issues, urban planning or other fields contributing to the betterment of this partnership.

"This forum has been held to debate challenges on scientific grounds based on real-life deliverables of partnerships; which would pave the way for developing effective solutions assisting in realizing the objectives of all parties. In his paper delivered to the forum, Al Nuaimi said: "The Abu Dhabi City Municipality is delivering services via 13 activated core services from which 84 services branch out which have been documented and automated through the online system in order to ease the processing, reduce paper work, and ensure the delivery of services to recipients without further referrals. The Building Permits Division has brought about a quantum shift in processing transactions by converting them from paper processes to online processes. Accordingly, it has held a workshops with customers dealing with the Division (consultants, contractors and realtors) to furnish them with the procedures that would save their time, and hand over to them their usernames and passwords for the e-system. MoUs have been signed with strategic partners (Abu Dhabi Distribution Company, Abu Dhabi Sewerage Service Company, Etisalat, Civil Defense, and several other concerned bodies), and the procedures manual of building permits had been prepared and distributed.

"The Building Permits Division completed 1156 transactions per day (in average) during 2014, and the number of consultants & contractors using the e-system of the Building Permits Division topped 6900 companies and offices. Service applications, and layouts & documents related to building permits required by service providers are being uploaded to the e-system of the Division to realize the objective of a Paperless Division. Accordingly, permits and completion certificates are being processed and issued online without requiring a visit to the Division.

"As regards the technical and administrative support, a senior engineer has been deployed to receive customers, respond to their inquiries & complaints, discuss objections made, and persuade customers to go through the legal process of dismissing a transaction or directing engineers to revisit sticky issues in case of making errors, if any.

"The implementation of e-services to the building permits has yielded a host of positives highlighted by reducing the requirements of licensing (land layout, search certificate, standard template), improving the quality of service, saving the processing time needed, and reducing the number of visiting customers. The e-system has also contributed to defining the requirements of various building permits, improving the performance, enhancing the efficiency, and enhancing the security of endorsing & verifying of layouts at site," stated Al Nuaimi.

Urban Planning

Engineer Saeed Ghobash, Director of Urban Planning, Town Planning Sector, delivered a paper in which he highlighted the importance of the urban planning in supporting decision makers and providing support services to developers in the building & construction sector, adding that the Division used to offer a host of services to foster a sustainable urban environment.

e-Services

Ghobash further added: "The Municipality has succeeded in utilizing a number of e-services, offering them to customers such as land plot layout site; a technology for issuing site layouts online where layout documents can be issued in a smooth and time-saving manner. It also rolled out the service of issuing NOCs online in coordination with other service providers in a fully electronic environment. It also included to the list of online services the service of issuing increments and merging partitions between residential buildings in coordination with the Spatial Data Division at the Municipality in order to save the cost and deliver the service through the customers service counter. Successes and improvement of service level made is a product of the fruitful cooperation and integration with strategic partners in a number of relevant entities."

EHS

During the workshop, the Municipality emphasized the importance of addressing all EHS standards at site, considering them an integral part of the conditions required for granting any permit in this field. Engineer Firas Tawfeeq Al Yousef, from the EHS Division, made a presentation about the Health, Safety and Environment along with the general standards and procedures that have to be in place at construction and building sites.

He stressed the importance of implementing the EHS Management System in minimizing risks, and its role in nurturing a safe working environment that contributes to protecting the life of workers and facilities alike. He called on consultancy offices and contractors to assign due attention to addressing the requirements of the EHS Management System, adding that the Municipality would make every endeavor to implement the highest standards of monitoring and inspection campaigns of construction sites & installations out of the keenness of the Municipality to maintain the highest levels of security and EHS standards for the benefits of workers at site.

"The Municipality adopts advanced monitoring programs and intends to intensify inspection campaigns along with enforcement mechanisms in order to step up the awareness of the rules in place and implement the EHS polices to the largest possible scope," added Firas.

"The implementation of this system is a clear manifestation of the social responsibility of the Municipality; which prioritizes the safety of workers and installations. Accordingly it seeks to foster improved standards and instill the EHS culture at building & construction sites. This system contributes to bringing about numerous positives to businesses including assisting them in managing risks impacting the safety as well environmental and occupational health, improving the performance, reducing the costs of accidents, slashing insurance premiums, boosting the morale of employees, and enhancing their confidence in the corporate values," added engineer Firas.

© Press Release 2015