Abu Dhabi e-service for underground extensions

The Abu Dhabi City Municipality is launching a new e-service whereby it will offer an online application system for endorsing layouts and No Objection Certificates for the limits of underground extensions for use as car parks in commercial land plots.

The move is taken in full cooperation and coordination with the Urban Planning, Building Permits and Spatial Data Divisions at the Town Planning Sector, Abu Dhabi City Municipality.

The activation of the online application for the services of Phase 4 will be on April 6, 2014, and the Municipality has, therefore, called on stakeholders to attend a workshop to be held in March to shed light on the procedures and requirements of the online applications for availing these services.

Salah Awad Al Sarraj, Acting Executive Director of Town Planning Sector, Abu Dhabi City Municipality, said: "This new e-service is provided in implementation of the plan of the Department of Municipal Affairs, and the Abu Dhabi City Municipality for automating all municipal processes and services. The Municipality has accomplished all procedures and preparations pertinent to the online application for this service through the e-licensing system of the infrastructure projects in Abu Dhabi city.

"This step comes in the aftermath of the huge success made during the initial phase of this programme in June 2012, which included the endorsement of layouts of utility lines of land plots, Phase II launched in September 2012 regarding work permits for municipal assets, and Phase III in Jan 2014 relating to the endorsement of layouts and notices authorising the start of works in infrastructure and roads projects," explained Al Sarraj.

About the positive impacts of the services relating to the endorsement of layouts and No Objection Certificates for the limits of underground extensions for use as car parks in commercial land plots, Al Sarraj said: "The approval granted by Abu Dhabi City Municipality to increase the limits set for the underground extensions has substantially contributed to providing a sufficient number of car parks for commercial buildings as part of our commitment to comply with the standards of transport planning. The service is also considered one of the most important governance procedures that received support at all levels, and it was necessary to coordinate with the service providers in Abu Dhabi in setting out the requirements under a single electronic platform to ease procedures during the project design and the construction of commercial buildings phases."

Explaining the procedures of availing the service, Saeed bin Ghbash, Director of Urban Planning, said: "The provisional approval of the layout of the limits of underground extensions has to be obtained by the Project Consultant during the provisional design phase, and the final layout approval has to be sought by the Project Consultant in the final design phase after obtaining NOCs from the competent bodies, fulfilling the requirements and procedures of the Building Permits Division at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality, seeking the approval of the Department of Transport, and endorsing the final layout by the competent bodies in the Municipality after ensuring that the Consultant is compliant with the transport planning standards in Abu Dhabi, particularly those relating to the provision of a sufficient number of car parks, and that the final extension of the approved limits as per the provisional approval has not been encroached."

The online application for these services provides a host of positives for all stakeholders and proprietors including landlords, consultants, and developers. The system enables the tracking of transactions flow online and obtaining comments and directives of the concerned bodies in the Municipality. The project manager can follow the approval procedures online, and figure out the status of the approval, NOCs, thus obtain factual and accurate information about the progress of the transaction along with the comments and instructions made by the Municipality.

The online application also enables the Spatial Data Division to update the geographical database during the design and construction phases such that accurate and reliable information will be provided to stakeholders about the limits of authorized underground extensions in order to avoid the interception of the path of future infrastructure projects with these extensions; which will save time, effort and money.
 

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