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BCA awards two contracts worth US$3.8 million to develop the world's first automated plan submission cum checking systems

10 October 2000 -- The Building and Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA) has awarded two contracts worth a total of US$3.8 million (S$6.6 million) to SGX-ST mainboard aspirant, novaSPRINT Pte Ltd, a leading developer and implementer of proprietary industry-focused e-Business solutions.

The first contract for US$2.25 million is to build the Integrated Plans Checking Systems for Building Plans and Building Services (IBP and IBS Systems). Another was a recent tender award, worth US$1.55 million, to build the One-Stop Submission Centre (OSSC), which facilitates electronic submissions, processing and approval of building project documents over the Internet.

The automated plan submission cum checking systems are part of the Construction and Real Estate Network (CORENET), a major Information Technology (IT) initiative spearheaded by the BCA, a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development, in collaboration with several public and private organizations. It aims to re-engineer the business processes of the construction industry to achieve a quantum leap in turnaround time, productivity and quality. The Singapore Government announced in October last year that it will be investing some US$25 million over the next four years to put in place the CORENET infrastructure. This is to facilitate the widespread use of IT by the construction industry and to improve its productivity.

"The awarding of the two tenders is in line with our stated objective of expediting the CORENET initiative," said Mr Tan Siong Leng, Chief Executive Officer of the Building and Construction Authority.

He added, "The IBP and IBS Systems, which are the first of its kind in the world, represent a significant milestone for the Singapore building and construction industry. Together with the OSSC, it integrates all planning and building submissions and plans checking into a single productive package. It is a quantum leap in automation that will result in significant savings in time and costs as such compliance checks are currently manually performed and time-consuming. It will help to speed up the adoption of the latest IT in the industry and revolutionize the ways building professionals carry out their design works and business processes. It is also part of our Government's effort to put its services on line to enable building applications to be made at anytime and from anywhere."

The IBP and IBS Systems will perform automated compliance checks on digital building plans submitted electronically by industry professionals such as architects, structural engineers, and mechanical & electrical engineers. These automated compliance checks are performed on the relevant parameters of the proposed building against the building codes and regulations for compliance. The development of these two systems is expected to be completed by 2003.

The other tender award won by the novaSPRINT group is a US$1.55 million contract to build the One-Stop Submission Centre. When developed by next year, it will be a virtual submission centre to facilitate round-the-clock electronic submission, processing and approval of project documents in a secure environment using the Internet/S-One as the delivery medium. These include submissions for planning approval, building plans, structural designs, temporary occupation permit, certificate of statutory completion and fire safety certificate. The submitted information would be received by OSSC, validated and then routed to the relevant authorities and applicants for further processing or action. Payment of fees will also be made electronically. The OSSC will save the industry travelling time to the 13 regulatory agencies and bring about significant manpower and cost savings to both the industry and agencies.

Mr Steven Chan, Chief Executive Officer of novaSPRINT, said: "We are proud to clinch these two valuable contracts from the BCA to automate the highly complex and specialised processes of building plans checking and approvals. These systems will complement our existing e-Business products for the urban planning and development industry."

Other government agencies involved in the CORENET initiative include the Info-Communications Development Authority of Singapore, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Fire Safety Bureau, Jurong Town Corporation, Ministry of the Environment, Land Transport Authority, National Parks Board, Housing & Development Board, Public Utilities Board etc. It also involves several key industry bodies such as the Association of Consulting Engineers, Institution of Engineers Singapore, Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore, Singapore Contractors Association Ltd, Singapore Institute of Architects, Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers etc.

Issued by the Building and Construction Authority on 10 October 2000.

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