The Telangana government has completed a decisive overhaul of its building approval framework, withdrawing the TG-bPASS system and consolidating all construction and layout permissions under the BuilD digital platform. The shift applies across Hyderabad and surrounding urban regions, marking a structural change in how one of India’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas manages real estate approvals and urban expansion.
The move follows the clearance of legacy applications that had remained on the older platform. With that backlog resolved, planning authorities have now standardised approvals through a single interface covering municipal corporations, development authorities and peripheral municipalities. Urban planners say the consolidation reduces regulatory fragmentation at a time when Hyderabad’s construction pipeline is expanding rapidly across housing, commercial and mixed-use segments.TG-bPASS was introduced to simplify approvals through a single-window model, integrating multiple departmental clearances and digitised payments. Over time, however, operational constraints emerged. Large architectural files faced upload delays, payment processing failures were frequent, and applicants often had to seek offline interventions to resolve technical issues. Industry representatives note that these frictions increased project uncertainty, particularly for small developers and individual homeowners operating on tight timelines.
The BuilD platform, now the sole approval system, has been designed to address these limitations using automation, spatial data and three-dimensional modelling. According to officials overseeing urban planning systems, the platform enables faster scrutiny of plans by overlaying proposals with mapped environmental and regulatory constraints such as water bodies, buffer zones and forest land. This reduces subjective interpretation while improving compliance with zoning and environmental norms.A key feature of the BuilD platform is its ability to process high-volume data without manual intervention. Large layouts and multi-storey building plans can be submitted digitally with minimal lag, allowing approvals to move in parallel rather than sequentially. Urban governance experts say this shift is essential for cities attempting to balance growth with climate resilience, as automated checks help prevent construction in ecologically sensitive zones.
The transition also reflects a broader push towards contactless civic services. Applicants can track approvals, submit revisions and make payments remotely, reducing dependence on physical offices. For a city grappling with scale, this has implications for transparency, cost efficiency and ease of doing business.Limited exceptions remain for applicants who opted for instalment-based payment of approval charges under earlier rules. Those cases will continue on the older system until financial obligations are completed. However, all new approvals, final layout documents and occupancy certifications are now routed exclusively through the BuilD platform.
As Hyderabad continues to attract real estate investment and population inflows, the effectiveness of this digital consolidation will be closely watched. Its long-term success will depend not just on speed, but on whether faster approvals translate into safer buildings, climate-aware land use and more predictable urban growth.
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Telangana Building Approvals Shift Fully to BuilD
