Dubai: A new Dubai Municipality video conferencing system is making huge savings in terms of car trips, greenhouse gases and working hours, officials said.
The 4D system recently went live, linking the municipality’s Buildings Department engineers with construction consultants seeking project approvals on screen.
It works through a secure connection similar to web chats.
The initiative does away with the need for in-person meetings, which totalled around 250 visits a day. It also means changes to blueprints and other papers can be done live on screen.
The result is that 78 per cent of applications are cleared on the day itself, instead of taking five or seven working days.
It is called 4D because it digitises four processes: appointments, meetings, audits and ratings. It will annually save 132,000 driving trips (for 66,000 meetings), 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide from car emissions, and 132,000 man-hours.
The project is in line with the municipality’s Zero Visit drive to transform its services digitally so there is no need to visit its offices, Hussain Lootah, Director-General, Dubai Municipality, said.
His comments came during a press conference announcing the system on Wednesday.
Layali Al Mulla, Assistant Director, Buildings Department, added the system was working “perfectly. Now, I can, for example, take the application in the morning, discuss any changes, and take a decision in the afternoon. Before, in the old way, the consultant would have to go back and get another appointment. It only takes a day now for most cases”.
She said the system meant work could start on the construction projects days earlier now.
