Dubai: Acquiring a water and electricity connection to homes is about to get easier, and you can finally bid adieu to those endless queues.
On Wednesday, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced that it has started a new and innovative phase of issuing electronic No Objection Certificates (NOCs) related to residential utility connections.
Accordingly, such certificates will be issued instantly through the online NOC system. The move is part of the improvement initiatives the RTA is considering to introduce this year (2017) in a bid to turn the Smart City initiative of the Dubai Government into a reality.
Adel Al Marzouqi, Director of Right of Way, Traffic and Roads Agency at RTA, said that the agreement has already been signed with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa).
“The RTA is working closely with its partners to introduce modern administrative concepts and bring about a substantial impact at various levels with a view to improving NOC services, especially as regards reducing the time required for processing home connections,” said Al Marzouqi.
“The duration of issuing NOCs of this type of services will now be slashed to five days. The initiative is seeking to cut short this period in an effective and innovative manner such that NOCs will be issued immediately once applied for through the NOC system,” he said.
Al Marzouqi explained that the real estate sector of Dubai is currently experiencing a boom coupled with a massive scale of works related to electric and water connections for projects that include residential villas, commercial buildings and residential complexes.
Last year, the RTA received about 4,915 applications for low-voltage electric connections and 1,277 applications for water services.
“Such applications reflect the importance of this vital sector to the urbanization witnessed by Dubai. In coordination with the concerned parties in RTA’s Corporate Technology Support Sector and DEWA, all procedures related to the upgrading of NOCs system have been completed to pave the way for the rolling out of this initiative,” he added.
