Mumbai: Rules for starting small trades simplified

The total number of general and special conditions to start these trades has been reduced to 51 from 72.

Officials said these trades needed to fulfill terms and conditions and get NOCs from various civic departments to start business. Earlier, for all these 38 trades, the NOCs from the buildings, factory and fire brigade departments was required, besides the health department. Now, an NOC from fire brigade will do, said a civic official.

“The reason behind removing NOC of building and factory department was that it used to take sometimes around a year to just issue an NOC. It used to delay the entire process of granting permission from health department as well,” explained the official.

Under ease of doing business, civic chief Ajoy Mehta approved simplifying the process of granting nods after the Association of Hotel and Restaurants, National Restaurant Association and others demanded it.

Earlier, the civic body had simplified building permissions procedure and redevelopment of properties on land it leased out.

The official added that the entire process of granting permission to these trades will take place at the ward level. Earlier, in some cases, approval of the executive health officer was required.

“However, permission will have a rubber stamp mentioning that it does not give any legality to the structure,” said the official, adding the applicants should respond within 30 days.