Thought of sharing how I got my building plan approval done, if it helps somebody.
Details: Mine is a 30 X 40 BDA site ( not handed over to BBMP yet ).
1. Identified the BDA supervisor for my area. I went with the BDA supervisor, because somebody told me that ,if you go with some other agent, this same supervisor might come later and ask you for another bribe ( though he might have already gotten his cut through the agent anyways).
2. Talked to him and he gave me the details of the official amount to be spent. See table(s) below.
3. In the list of documents, I told him that , he needs to get the indemnity bond and affidavit done by him ( and I will sign) as anyway am going to pay him some unofficial charges. Asked him for how much will be the unofficial charges, for which he never gave a clear answer. I asked him if it will work out for 5k max.
4. He asked me to get the application purchased from the next office ( inside the BDA complex itself) for Rs 150. Signed about 6-7 places in this document and left it with him.
5. I had the requirement that the approved plan needs to be matching with my actual construction plan atleast in the room positions. Hence BDA guy called up another external contact who does the drawing for him and gave my actual plan to him. Also I had told him that before its made to ammonia print, I wanted to verify it and hence a rough draft needed to be approved by me.
6. After three days, the BDA guy called me and asked me to come and verify the rough draft. Overall he had done a good job as the BDA plan drawn was matching in all room positions with my working plan.
7. At this stage, make 100% sure that all the site numbers ( yours and neighboring site numbers) , names etc are all mentioned perfectly. Any minor mistakes here can be herculean task later.
8. I had some corrections and all were corrected and asked him to take the ammonia prints.
9. After two days he asked me to come and pay the official charges and paid him in cash Rs 23000 ( 18000 + 5000). He took care of the Chellan and other official payments.
10. After two more days he called me and told everything was ready. Went and collected the construction approval certificate along with 6 ammonia prints of the plan. As I understand, each one of these ammonia prints goes to different departments, and hence the details in this doc are very important.
11. Finally I asked him for his charges and he still dint say. I offered him 3k which he rejected. Another 2k was given and hence it was settled for Rs 5k.
Lessons Learned
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1. Try to speak as much Kannada as possible. I dont speak good Kannada but looks like soon I will be !! If you are really poor in Kannada, take a Kannada speaking friend with you.
2. Dont go to the offices , dressed up like an executive ( particularly dont wear your ID card/ Typical office bags, if you are a software engineer). If he asks where you are working tell the area and not the exact office name
3. If you have both bike and car, dont go by car. Only visit these places by bike or if possible by walk. Wear chappals instead of shoes !!
4. Make him aware with some small talks like bank loan etc that you dont have lot of money with you
5. Preferably go with your BDA/BBMP supervisor if he is ready to do it for you . This way , during construction, the same person will be the in-charge for your area and you already will have good rapport with him.
6. Dont go with very higher officials unless that person is very close to you . Otherwise , the lower grade officers will create unnecessary trouble for you during file movement.
7. Get hold of one guy and follow up with him. Dont change persons / agents in between or you may end up paying for many than just one.
8. Dont pay full money upfront.
9. Make sure that you collect the receipts for all the official payments.
10. Keep on following up everyday ,by visiting or calling, after you have submitted the docs. Dont let them forget your case and thus it might get done faster.
Some details about Cess
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1. If your BDA construction estimate is above 10lakhs you need to pay cess.
2. BDA calculation per square ( 100sqft ) charge is just around 800000 Rs. So once you cross 1200 sqft , you have tp pay cess.
3. If you want to avoid cess, you can show your construction area as less than 1200 sqft and thus make the estimate less than 10L.The BDA guy had asked me to show it less and hence avoid cess. I dint want to do that and hence paid the cess .
Table 1 ( Docs )
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1. Sale Deed ( if you are not the first allotte all the previous sale deeds are also needed ).
2. Latest Tax Paid Receipt.
3. BDA Khatha in your name
4. Indemnity Bond ( BDA guy got it done for me )
5. Affidavit from Notary ( again BDA guy got it done )
6. Working plan ( the plan which you actually construct with )
Table 2 ( Amounts Paid )
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1. Rs 6800 ( official , this include slum clearing cess, Ground Rent and some other charges ).
2. Cess ( Official Rs 12000 )
3. Plan drawing + Estimate Creation ( Kind of Official but no bills. This is given to another external person who does the drawing/estiamte 3000 + 2000 = 5000)
4. Bribe ( Unofficial Rs 5000 )
Total Rs 28000/-.
Table 3 ( Time taken )
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1. He told me that it would take 15 days.
2. Finally all was done in just 10 days time.