India: BIMDCR®, an innovative product by SoftTech Engineers Limited is enabling Construction Permit System at the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and has helped MCGM boost Ease of Doing Business (EODB by World Bank) ranking by manifolds. MCGM is an organic extension of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra, India. Towards a better Mumbai’s growth & development, MCGM permits new building construction & redevelopment, all construction-related approvals as per the mandates and various building permissions as per Development Control Regulations.
MCGM is successfully leveraging Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology which is a model-based design concept, where buildings can be built virtually before they are built physically. By adopting BIMDCR®, MCGM is going to streamline Data Models with complete integration of all relevant factors in the building lifecycle starting from permits to detail design to cost estimation to project management and maintenance. Also, the solution helps manage information exchange between Architects, Engineers and Contractors in the ecosystem, to strengthen the collaboration among all stakeholders with a single source of data (BIM Model) to manage the entire building development cycle.
As an innovative 3D Building Model-based Online Single Window system, BIMDCR® based integrated Building Plan Approval System is enabling automatic scrutiny of building proposals by dynamically reading Building Models submitted by Applicants or Architects.
BIMDCR® is dynamically simplifying & automating the construction permit processes:
Single BIMDCR® model submission to various municipal departments will ensure that the change ‘Anywhere’ is the change ‘Everywhere’. The chances of deviations in the building plan approved by the different departments can cause inconsistencies in the approval process. A unified 3D BIMDCR® model with layers of all functions in the same model can help avoid this challenge & adhere to the regulations. Moreover, the approvals at various stages are made easy with the in-depth assessment & analysis. BIMDCR® enables total unauthorized construction control at various stages of any project & will help adhere to Green Building Code compliance.
BIM has boosted MCGM’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking significantly
Advanced and developed countries such as the US, UK, Singapore & Hong Kong have significantly started the adoption of BIM in the AEC industry because of the obvious benefits of this proven technology. According to the Indian Government Think Tank NITI Aayog, BIM could save up to 20% of the project cost by shortening the construction time.
The building permit technology product BIMDCR® developed by SoftTech has been a strong facilitator to the adoption of BIM in the industry. MCMG has been harnessing the power of BIM through BIMDCR® by introducing permits on the BIM model. This is the second breakthrough initiative in the world only after Singapore. Considering the myriad complexities in Mumbai city, this transformation is not quite easy. The initiative by the BP department of MCGM under the leadership of Chief Engineer Shri Vinod Chithore and ably driven by Executive Engineer and nodal officer of EODB Shri Sanjay Nirmal to adopt this technology clearly proves their solid commitment to bring technology transformation to the advantage of the citizen of Mumbai.
The Overall Rank of India in the Doing Business Report 2015 was 142 out of 190 economies. This has improved to 63rd Position in the Doing Business Report 2020 released in October 2019. The adoption of BIM, GIS & other leading-edge technologies by the AEC industry will further improve India’s ranking.
Leveraging BIM (BIMDCR) and CAD (AutoDCR) based permit system, MCGM has significantly improved the ease of doing business. The number of procedures has been reduced from 20 to 8., the time taken for the process has been reduced from 99 to 45 days, the cost has reduced from 6.6% to 2.21% value of Warehouse, the quality parameter is achieved 100% as per World Bank norms., transparency ensured by randomization of scrutiny officials and remarks being in the public domain has been maximized and information dissemination by dynamic dashboard has been accomplished. BIMDCR® is an all-inclusive and shared source of information on a single BIM model facilitating effective decision-making during the building construction lifecycle, starting from permits.
Commenting on this achievement by MCGM, Mr. Vijay Gupta, CEO & Founder at SoftTech said, “connecting all stakeholders, along with their skillset, perspectives & data – in one cohesive ecosystem, BIMDCR® eliminates information silos for consistency and significantly better communication. Since the building plan approval process can be mapped dynamically & scrutiny of documents is automated, BIMDCR® is a citizen-centric solution that leads to better building management.”
The pace of urbanization is speeding up in India with an expectation of better facilities and infrastructure. Recently Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) initiated the much-celebrated national program for urban India – ‘Smart Cities’, to further drive economic development. The idea is to build greenfield cities as well as rebuild or revamp existing cities to be smart, future-ready, and sustainable. Whether it is a green-field smart city or an upgrade of an existing city into a Smart City, GIS & BIM are leading the digital transformation in the AEC industry.
BIM will define the future of construction. BIMDCR® streamlines and automates the end-to-end building permit management process with insights for smarter town and city planning. It is specially designed for local and state government councils to maximize efficiency & agility through digitalization and intelligent automation and allow them to focus more on enabling better citizen conveniences & amenities.
About SoftTech Engineers: A leading IT company (www.softtech-engr.com) facilitating business and technology transformation across the AEC industry through innovative software products and solutions. Equipped with 25+ years of deep domain expertise and industry knowledge, SoftTech has helped more than 4500 clients & government organizations, with more than 25000 users in India and around the world to gain a competitive edge and lead from the front in the industry.