Single window for trade licences in Chennai

Large traders in the city will be able to get trade licences without obtaining no-objection certificates directly from other agencies

The Chennai Corporation will soon constitute zonal coordination committees to clear trade licence applications under the proposed single-window system.

Officials of Metrowater, fire and rescue services, police department, pollution control board, inspectorate of factories, food safety and drug administration and public health will be on the coordination committee headed by the Corporation zonal officers concerned.

The committee will meet every month to clear the applications. The civic body is planning to get clearance from other agencies within 15 days of submission of applications.

The existing Chennai Corporation council has been trying to introduce the single-window system to simplify the process of obtaining trade licences for the past few years. A meeting to finalise the contours of the new system will be organised on Saturday.

“The new system for trade licence will also take into account grievances of traders who are denied licences by the agencies,” a Corporation official said.

Thousands of large traders in the city will be able to get trade licences without obtaining no-objection certificates directly from other agencies.

“Under the proposed system, the Corporation will shoulder the responsibility of sending letters to the respective agencies to get their clearance,” the official said. Now, traders themselves have to obtain clearance from the agencies before submitting applications for a trade licence from the Corporation.

Small units such as tea stalls less than 200 sq. ft. are already covered in a simplified system of issuance of trade licence without prior verification. A chunk of the 40,000 traders who are not covered under the simplified process will be the beneficiaries of the single-window system.

More than a lakh traders in the city will soon be regulated under the new system.