Thiruvananthapuram: Erring software sees applications pile up

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the city corporation is busy holding adalats to clear pending files relating to building permits, the erring Integrated Building Permit Management System (IBPMS) – the software introduced recently for processing building permit application - continues to be a major headache for the authorities. The software could approve only 2,653 of the total 7,690 building permit applications received by the civic body.

It is learnt that since the launch of the software, the processing of applications has become super slow.  With no development team in the state to fix the issues in the software, which is clearly in a testing stage, the issue is becoming a major challenge for the civic body.  The IBPMS software was launched across the state by the Local Self Government Department (LSGD) last year.  

With complaints growing on the erring software from municipalities and corporations across the state, the LSGD minister has convened a meeting of the Mayors on Wednesday to take a decision on the software. Mayor V.K. Prasanth said that the corporation alone can’t take the decision on the software as it is implemented across the state by the government. “Hope the next meeting called by the minister would come up with a solution. There are certain issues that need to be looked into,” said the Mayor.

While an official said that the issue is not with the software but the time being taken for fixing each issue. “The software is pretty new and it’s in a testing stage. The problem is the development team is in Pune and it’s taking a lot of time to get each issue fixed. There should be a team here who could look into the issue without any delay which would help full proof the software,” said the official.

All Kerala Building Designers Organisation has filed a petition against the software at the High Court. President of the organisation Kowdiar Harikumar said that the software has been a total failure and the earlier one was much better. “Many local bodies and municipalities have ditched the IBPMS because of recurring issues. The issue has been taken up in the assembly sessions multiple times,” said Mr Harikumar.