- What the building permission process in Hyderabad looks like now
- Which authority covers your plot — GHMC, HMDA or DTCP
- The three routes, by plot size and height
- The published timelines, in days
- The documents you actually need
- What signing that declaration really means
- The occupancy certificate — different numbers entirely
- Where ₹1cr+ builds actually lose time
- When we are not the right fit
Most guides to the building permission process in Hyderabad are describing a portal that no longer exists. TG-bPASS was shut permanently after 15 December 2025. Every fresh building and layout application in GHMC, HMDA and DTCP areas now goes through a different system called BuildNow. If your architect is still quoting the old steps, you are planning around a process that has been switched off.
The rules were not just renamed. The route changed, the drawing format changed, and the part most owners still misunderstand — who carries the legal risk — did not change at all. It sits with you. Every number below is linked to the government page it came from, and where a figure is not published, we say so instead of guessing.
What the building permission process in Hyderabad looks like now
Building permission in Hyderabad is applied for online through BuildNow, the Telangana government’s unified building and layout approval portal. It covers GHMC, HMDA and DTCP areas. It replaced TG-bPASS, which was closed permanently after 15 December 2025. Most homes are approved on self-certification, which means your licensed architect signs to say the drawings follow the rules, instead of an official checking them by hand.
BuildNow launched on 21 March 2025 and took over from TG-bPASS in stages. The portal’s homepage states that “Building and Layout Approval Applications that come under GHMC, HMDA and DTCP limits are now processed through BuildNow”, and carries a notice telling applicants to finish anything pending in TGbPASS by 15 December 2025 “as the TGbPASS portal will be permanently closed after this date”. Plans already sanctioned under the old system stay valid, but a new file cannot be opened there. The portal advertises drawing scrutiny in under five minutes, which tells you what really changed: a machine now reads your drawing instead of a person. That speed is welcome. It is also why a small drafting error can sail straight through and surface years later.
The legal backbone is unchanged: the same statutory self-certification framework under Telangana’s municipal law. What moved is the front door, the drawing format and the speed — not who answers if the drawing is wrong. Still choosing who handles this? Our note on how to choose a construction company in Hyderabad covers what to ask before drawings start.
Which authority covers your plot — GHMC, HMDA or DTCP
Three authorities issue building permission around Hyderabad. GHMC covers land inside the corporation’s own limits. HMDA is the planning authority for the wider metropolitan region outside it. DTCP covers municipalities beyond that. Since BuildNow, all three are applied for on one portal — but the rules applied to your file still depend on which one you fall under.
Owners skip this step, and it quietly decides setbacks, permissible height and how long you wait. Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Film Nagar, Madhapur and the HITEC City stretch, and Gachibowli sit inside GHMC limits. Move west and south and you leave the corporation: Kokapet, Narsingi and Tellapur are governed by their own municipalities with HMDA as the planning authority above them. HMDA’s own site puts its jurisdiction at “1355 Revenue Villages from 104 Mandals in eleven 11 Districts with an area of about 10472.723 Sq.Kmts” after its extension to the Regional Ring Road. Boundaries have moved repeatedly. Two plots on the same road can fall under different authorities, so do not settle this from a locality name.
Settle it from your survey number. When you select the location inside BuildNow, the portal routes the file to the correct authority. That routing, not a neighbour’s opinion, is the answer. Boundaries on the city’s edge have moved more than once, so confirm the status of a Kokapet, Narsingi or Tellapur plot against its survey number before design begins rather than against a neighbour’s experience.
It matters commercially: the same 500 sq yd plot can carry different setbacks under GHMC and HMDA, which changes your built-up area and what the house costs to build. So we fix the authority before the first sketch on every villa build we take on in Hyderabad.
The three routes, by plot size and height
Telangana publishes three routes for residential building permission, sorted by plot area and height. Up to 75 sq yards is a registration, not a full permission. Up to 500 sq metres and 10 metres height is instant self-certified approval. Above that, or anything non-residential, goes to the 21-day single-window route with NOCs.
These thresholds sit on BuildNow’s timelines page, and they are the most useful thing to know before you design. 500 sq metres is roughly 598 sq yards — where a large share of independent homes here actually sit. Ten metres is roughly stilt plus three floors, depending on your floor-to-floor heights. So a 400 sq yard plot carrying a ground-plus-two house usually clears without a human ever reviewing the plan. Cross either line and NOCs and departmental checks apply. Designers sometimes push height to fit a terrace room without telling the owner that line has been crossed. Ask.
| Your plot and height (residential) | What BuildNow requires |
|---|---|
| 63 sq m / 75 sq yards or less | Online registration, ₹1 token fee — no full permission, no occupancy certificate |
| 500 sq m or less, and 10 m or lower | Instant approval by online self-certification |
| Larger than 500 sq m, or taller than 10 m | Single window, Common Application Form, NOCs |
| Any non-residential building, any size | Single window, Common Application Form, NOCs |
One honest wrinkle. BuildNow’s FAQ describes plots under 75 sq yards as needing only “online registration” with a ₹1 fee, while its timelines set 15 days against that same category. Both are official. The portal does not explain whether that 15-day figure is an outer processing limit or covers something other than the registration itself. Confirm it on the portal rather than from any article, including this one.
The published timelines, in days
Every service carries a stipulated time on the government’s published timelines. Residential plans up to 500 sq metres are listed at 15 days, larger and non-residential plans at 21 days. NOCs run 10 to 14 days each. A land use certificate is 3 days. These are the authority’s clock — not the total time from your first drawing to your first pour.
Read this as the government’s promise, not your project schedule. It covers the department’s response — not the weeks your architect needs for a compliant drawing, your time gathering title documents, or the loop that opens if the file comes back short. NOCs run alongside the main file, not inside it: that same government page allows 14 days for a provisional fire NOC and 10 for a third-party structural check, and either can be the critical path on a taller house.
| Service | Stipulated time, per BuildNow |
|---|---|
| Building plans | |
| Residential, 63 sq m / 75 sq yards or less | 15 days |
| Residential, 500 sq m or less and 10 m or lower | 15 days |
| Residential beyond either limit, plus all non-residential | 21 days |
| Raising of shortfall, if any | 10 days |
| Compliance of DC conditions and submission of mortgage | 20 days |
| Same, with interest | 30 days |
| NOCs, on the same government page | |
| Provisional Fire NOC | 14 days |
| NALA conversion | 14 days |
| NOC FTL (Irrigation) | 10 days |
| NOC FTL (Revenue) | 10 days |
| NOC for water feasibility | 10 days |
| Third-party proof check of structural designs | 10 days |
| NOC for height clearance (AAI) | Instant |
| Other services, same page | |
| Land use certificate as per master plan | 3 days |
| Tentative layout | 21 days |
| Release of mortgage after final layout | 21 days |
That government page is the source for all of the above. One deadline runs against you rather than the department: once the fee intimation letter arrives, you have 15 days to pay. Miss it and the portal’s FAQ allows a second 15 days on payment of 10% interest. Owners travelling abroad have lost weeks to that single letter.
The documents you actually need
Telangana publishes no fixed master checklist. Asked what is needed, BuildNow answers only that the portal prompts documents based on your proposal type. In practice every application rests on ownership proof, an encumbrance certificate, a current tax receipt, and drawings in the accepted CAD format, signed by a licensed technical person — a registered architect or structural engineer, not your builder.
This is where most articles quietly invent things. The government’s answer, in full, is: “Basing on the type of building proposal, the details of the documents will be prompted for uploading.” For the self-certified residential route, the official FAQ carried over from the previous system describes what is needed as an “Online application form along with declaration duly Self-certifying regarding the size of the plot and floors and ownership document including EC and PDF document of proposed plan”, plus an “Undertaking to be submitted with self-certification regarding personal accountability and liability in case of false declaration”. That is the legally defined core. What follows is the practical set an owner is asked for on a real file — preparation, not a published rule.
| Document | Why it is asked for | Where owners get stuck |
|---|---|---|
| Sale deed and link documents | Proves the chain of ownership, not just the last transfer | A missing link deed from a 1990s partition |
| Encumbrance certificate (EC) | Named in the official self-certification list | Pulled for too short a period to show an old charge |
| Latest property tax receipt | Ties the plot to a live municipal record | Receipt still in a previous owner’s name |
| Approved layout number, where the plot is in a layout | Links your plot to a sanctioned layout | Unapproved or part-approved layouts |
| Site, floor, elevation and section drawings | The plan the system scrutinises | Not prepared in the portal’s accepted CAD format |
| Structural drawings and stability certificate | Signed by a licensed engineer | Produced after design freeze instead of alongside it |
| Owner and licensed technical person declarations | The self-certification undertaking itself | Signed without anyone reading the liability clause |
| Soil investigation report and NOCs (taller or larger builds) | Fire, water feasibility, height clearance, FTL as applicable | Started too late, after the main file is already in |
One practical warning: BuildNow’s drawing measurement plugin accepts specific CAD formats and versions, and the portal’s plugin guide page was unreachable when this was written. Confirm the accepted format with your architect before drawings begin, because a file in the wrong format is rejected at upload.
Sort the title documents first. On a turnkey home build, the paperwork gap is almost always older than the project — a boundary that was never re-surveyed, or an EC that stops short of the year it needed to reach.
Design frozen, drawings right, documents in order — that sequence is what keeps an application from bouncing.
What signing that declaration really means
Self-certification means no officer checks your plan before approval. You and your licensed technical person declare it is correct, and the system approves it. The checking happens later, on site. Get the declaration wrong and Telangana’s published answer is blunt: a penalty of 25% of the value of the land, three years imprisonment, or demolition without notice.
Every fast-approval article leaves this part out. BuildNow’s official FAQ states that where an application misrepresents facts, “permission will be revoked and action initiated for demolition of the building, penal charges, criminal proceeding etc.” The same BuildNow FAQ splits setback deviations into less than 10% and more than 10%, and against the heavier category BuildNow sets “levy of penalty of 25% of value of land/ three years imprisonment/demolition without notice”. On parking, BuildNow states a “penalty may be levied up to 25% of the value of the land or Building including land as fixed by the Registration department”. Asked outright whether notice comes before unauthorised construction is demolished, the government’s answer runs to one word: no. Apply that percentage to land value in Jubilee Hills or Kokapet. The approval was free in four minutes. The mistake is not.
In practice the approved drawing stops being a formality and becomes the contract. Every on-site change — a wall pushed out for a wider foyer, a balcony extended, a stilt enclosed for a store — is a deviation against a document you personally signed. This is precisely why we hold the approved set on site and refuse verbal changes that touch setbacks or footprint. It is also the honest answer to why a considered construction company in Hyderabad will push back on a mid-build idea that a cheaper contractor would happily execute.
The occupancy certificate — different numbers entirely
Occupancy thresholds are not the permission thresholds. Telangana exempts a residential building up to 200 sq metres and 7 metres height. Between 200 and 500 sq metres, or 7 to 10 metres, it is instant. Above 500 sq metres and for all non-residential, it is 21 days.
Owners assume the 500 sq metre and 10 metre figures carry through to occupancy. They do not. That line sits much lower, and the government words the exemption exactly so: individual residential buildings on plots up to 200 sq metres with a height of 7 metres are exempted. So most ₹1cr+ homes here — anything on roughly 240 sq yards or more, or taller than a modest two floors — do need one, even though the permission itself was instant. Plan for it at design stage, not at handover, because it is checked against the approved drawing. Any deviation you accepted during construction is what stands between you and it.
Where ₹1cr+ builds actually lose time
Not at the department. Permission for a typical Hyderabad home is fast. Time is lost on unresolved title documents, drawings prepared in the wrong format, NOCs started too late, and design changes made after the plan was approved. Every one of those is inside your control.
The sequence that works: fix the authority from the survey number before design. Pull the EC and link documents in week one, not week six. Freeze the design — genuinely freeze it — before anyone signs the declaration, because after that every change is a deviation with a percentage attached. Start any applicable NOC the same day the main file goes in, since the government allows each of them 10 to 14 days on its own clock. Diarise the fee intimation letter. And keep the approved set on site, so nobody makes a small kind decision at 11am that becomes a penalty at handover.
None of it is exotic. It is sequencing, and it separates a permission that takes three weeks from one that takes three months. You can see that discipline in our completed and ongoing projects — Kingston Park and Ridhira Zen are finished and can be visited, and Golecha Ghar is currently under construction if you would rather walk a live site than look at a photograph.
Regulations here change more often than most owners expect, and this page is accurate to August 2026. Before you plan costs or a timeline around any number above, open the portal and confirm it against your own plot.
When we are not the right fit
Simfy Homes is a design-and-build company for bespoke homes in Hyderabad and Goa. We are not a permissions agency. If all you need is someone to file a drawing, a licensed architect or a liaison consultant will do it faster and for far less than we cost.
We are also the wrong choice if you want the lowest quote, if you plan to build in phases as funds allow over several years, or if you want a contractor who will quietly execute site changes that deviate from an approved plan. That last one is a deal-breaker for us, and it costs us work.
Where we do fit: an owner who wants one accountable team from drawings through handover, progress documented well enough to follow from anywhere, and a build that still holds up when the occupancy certificate is checked against the approved set. If that is your shape, see how we handle house construction in Hyderabad, or talk to our team before drawings are finalised — that is when advice is still cheap.
Is TG-bPASS still working for building permission in Hyderabad?
No. A notice on the BuildNow homepage states the TGbPASS portal was permanently closed after 15 December 2025, and that GHMC, HMDA and DTCP applications are now processed there instead. Anything already sanctioned stays valid; nothing new can be filed there.
How long does building permission take in Hyderabad?
Telangana allows itself 15 days for residential plots up to 500 sq metres and 10 metres height, and 21 days for anything larger or non-residential, per BuildNow’s published timelines. That is the department’s clock — preparing compliant drawings and clearing title documents usually takes longer.
Do I need building permission for a small plot?
Per BuildNow’s FAQ, plots up to 63 sq metres, or 75 sq yards, are handled as an online registration with a ₹1 token fee rather than a full permission, and need no occupancy certificate. Anything larger requires permission. Confirm your category on the portal.
Can my building be demolished if there is a deviation?
Yes, in the heavier category. For setback deviations of more than 10%, Telangana’s published answer on BuildNow is a penalty of 25% of the value of the land, three years imprisonment, or demolition without notice. Smaller deviations are handled separately on that page. Treat the approved drawing as binding.
What happens if I self-certify something wrongly?
The undertaking you sign carries personal accountability and liability for a false declaration. Where facts are misrepresented, BuildNow answers that permission is revoked and action initiated for demolition, penal charges and criminal proceedings. Nobody pre-checks the plan, so the responsibility rests with you and your licensed technical person.
Which authority approves my plot — GHMC or HMDA?
GHMC covers land inside corporation limits, which includes Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Film Nagar, Madhapur and Gachibowli. Areas beyond it, such as Kokapet, Narsingi and Tellapur, sit with their own municipalities under HMDA. Confirm from your survey number on the portal, not from the locality name.
Is an occupancy certificate compulsory for my house?
Telangana exempts it only for individual residential buildings on plots up to 200 sq metres with a height up to 7 metres. BuildNow then issues it instantly up to 500 sq metres, and treats anything bigger as a 21-day service. Most larger independent homes need one.
What documents are required for house construction in Hyderabad?
No fixed list is published — BuildNow prompts documents based on your proposal type. The defined core, set out in Telangana’s self-certification FAQ, is the application form, a declaration, ownership documents including the encumbrance certificate, and the proposed plan. Expect to add link deeds, a current tax receipt and structural drawings.
Sources
- Official portal homepage — GHMC/HMDA/DTCP coverage and the TGbPASS closure notice: BuildNow Telangana
- Stipulated times for building plans, NOCs, occupancy certificates and layouts: Timelines
- Fees, liability, deviation penalties, demolition notice and occupancy exemption: Frequently Asked Questions
- Application routes by category: Flowcharts
- Self-certification scope and the declarations it requires: TG-bPASS archived FAQ
- Superseded day counts, kept for comparison: TG-bPASS timelines
- Jurisdiction and the extended metropolitan area: Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority
- Corporation-level permission workflow: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation
- Launch on 21 March 2025 and the switchover from TG-bPASS: The Siasat Daily
Rules and timelines change. Verify every figure on the official portal before you plan costs or a schedule around it. Accurate to August 2026.
Send us your plot details and we will tell you which route your build falls under.
The Simfy Homes teamSimfy Homes designs and builds bespoke homes, villas and interiors across Hyderabad and Goa, with one accountable team from first sketch to handover.
