City works to streamline project approval procedures

Shanghai is working to streamline approval procedures for certain construction projects as a timetable has been set to cut down on the time it takes to complete the procedures from the current 267 days to 100 days by the end of this year, said Shanghai Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission.

This includes applications of, according to the commission, new constructions, reconstructions and extensions. Only a small number of applications related classified projects, hydraulic engineering and power will still need more time to process.

The commission said construction projects examination and approving often take long for various government bodies would be involved during the process.

The city has been working on streamlining approval procedures since March. Projects related to water and power supplies and launching a business are among those to benefit.

In order to make the approval process more efficient, the city will separate the planning process into two parts. One with projects at stages of early planning as a reserve, the other which will be managed directly by the commission is projects ready to start construction.

In the past, since the fire control, environment, land planning departments had different demands for a construction project, the applicant often spent too much time submitting materials.

Now the applicant will have to only submit material once to the commission once, the suggestions and advices of all official bodies will be collected by the commission and feedback to the applicant.

Meanwhile, some technical part of the approval process will be examined by the executive architects of the project. The government will only look into whether the project is legally valid.

“In this way, the architects will feel more fulfilled and devoted to the project,” said an official from the commission. “It will also save us more time of assessing as we hand the technical assessment to the professionals.”