The City of Kigali has laid out new procedures for construction permit applications designed to remove the bureaucracies as well as cut the numerous costs involved in the process.Speaking to architects and engineers in a meeting on Monday, city mayor Fidele Ndayisaba said the new procedures are currently in effect and will go a long way in improving the quality of constructions in the city.According to the One Stop Centre (OSC), it will now take an applicant 30 days rather than 45 to get a construction permit."Communication and feedback between the city authorities and the applicants will be in three phases lasting 30 calendar days. Within those days, we shall be able to receive construction permit applications, indicate corrections and clarifications and then provide the permit,” Lillian Uwanziga Mupende, the director of Urban Planning and Construction at OSC, said.The procedures will also see a drastic fall in the cost of permit issuance from Rwf650,000 to as low as Rwf20,000, while the highest cost will be fixed at Rwf60,000."We also merged services involving environment impact assessment and requirements by Energy Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA). We tried this last year, but it involved too many bureaucratic procedures. By merging the two, applicants will not seek authority from EWSA or from Rwanda Development Board because everything will be provided by authorised OSC officers,” Mupende added.Channel of authorityThe city gives priority to projects developed by engineers assigned to their association, but the president of the Association of Engineers, Fred Rwihunda, said many engineers are not yet registered members."I appreciate that the mayor has devised better procedures to ease our work. Now we must look within ourselves to ensure that the work is conducted professionally. That is why I ask all those engineers who have not registered with the association to do so in order to ascertain their credibility,” Rwihunda said.The mayor advised permit seekers to request a pre-qualification consultation with the OSC before starting their construction plans, saying it is an "optional but important and highly recommended step” because it reduces the number of changes required after any submission stage.At the meeting, Infrastructure minister Prof. Silas Lwakabamba urged the engineering fraternity to link the market with higher learning institutions in order to facilitate the country’s next generation of engineers.