The Jeddah Municipality is planning to introduce electronic services, including GPS, to improve its working.

The decision taken by the municipality to introduce electronic services to apply for building permits, for instance, has reduced the approval period and also helps detect violations.

The Jeddah Municipality will now accept only electronic copies of land locations and proposed designs for buildings.

Jeddah officials adopted the new strategy to achieve electronic governance and to update regulations relevant to building permits for the benefit of engineers and architects, who in turn deal with landlords on matters pertaining to building design.

The municipality has been conducting workshops and seminars with engineers and architects to explain the procedure and permission norms of buildings.

Fifteen offices were granted permission by the Jeddah Municipality to apply for building construction licenses and the number is expected to increase.

Building safety and the prevention of violations are the prime objectives of electronic services, in addition to expediting the permit process. Officials will monitor compliance stipulated in the permit for construction through a GPS system.

For example, the longitude and latitude of each project is recorded and can be monitored visually through electronic software and a global positioning system. The systems allow city officials keep tabs on the size of project, how much land it covers and even the height of buildings.

City official say that the construction of high-rise buildings beyond the permitted height limit is one of the major violations faced by municipalities.

The Jeddah Municipality has issued 3,044 building permits since June through the new electronic system. Municipality officials say that about 48 percent of the total licenses were issued within a day or two, while 1,467 permits were issued the same day. Examination of each building design by municipality engineers took on average just 30 minutes.

The municipality has also said that approval or rejection of building requests will be completed within three days. Inspectors will return rejected building proposals to the engineering office listing the reason for rejection with advice for modifications in the proposed design.