DM, Dewa and Etisalat offer single NOC service

Dubai Municipality, in co-ordination with Dewa and Etisalat, is implementing a project to simplify procedures for issuing No Objection Certificates (NOC) to engineering consultants and contracting companies undertaking different types of development projects in the emirate.

The project, part of the civic body’s e-Government initiative, seeks to integrate procedures for issuing a single NOC involving Dubai Municipality, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) and Etisalat, according to Hussain Nasser Lootah, assistant director general of Dubai Municipality for building and planning affairs. He also heads the municipality’s e-Government Project Committee.

In addition to Dubai Municipality, services authorities such as Etisalat and Dewa also issue separate NOCs for any work that is to be completed that may impact their service networks. The general pattern is to obtain NOCs from Etisalat and Dewa, then obtain NOCs from a number of departments/sections within the municipality and then obtain a final NOC from the municipality’s Services Co-ordination Centre.

To provide customers with single operation for issuing a single services NOC for the municipality, Dewa and Etisalat, a Dubai NOC committee was set up headed by Lootah. This committee has undertaken the project to integrate the current municipal e-NOC service with Dewa and Etisalat.

“This is an extremely important project for Dubai. This project will take the e-Government initiative of Dubai to the next level and will allow various government departments to collaborate with each other in order to provide better service to the businesses and citizens of Dubai,” said Lootah.

He explained that as part of Dubai Municipality’s e-Government initiative, an e-Service was launched in October 2001 to enable customers to apply for, enquire on the status of their NOC applications at various departments and receive their NOCs online through the Internet.

This municipal, Dewa and Etisalat NOC integration project started in June and consists of three phases: the first deals with business analysis; the second with development; and the third with implementation. Currently, the project is in the final stages of the first phase. The project is to be completed by October and a new integrated e-NOC will then be available for customers will be able to electronically receive a unified NOC.