SoftTech Engineers Pvt. Ltd.: IT tools in City development

City development is a crucial factor for any country's growth. In a developing country, municipal corporations/urban local bodies and other development enterprises face several challenges like rapid urbanization and unplanned development. Faster approvals of building plans in compliance with development control rules and building bye laws, transparency in processes and effective interaction with government systems are the requirements today.

Private infrastructure developers and contractors need systems that can manage the entire construction life cycle in a cost effective and efficient manner to complete projects within a given time and budget. SoftTech's products are developed to cater to the entire life cycle of construction starting from Planning, Approval, Procurement, and Monitoring to Execution.


Public Works Information Management System (PWIMS™), is a web based application for managing the core functional processes of works, planning, procurement and maintenance in public works organizations. It is developed keeping in mind needs of organizations engaged in works, procurement and maintenance of infrastructure assets like roads, buildings, bridges, water works and more. PWIMS™ handles the complete process of Tender management to project execution, adding the much needed teeth for improved functioning of public works departments. PWIMS has proven to:

• Improve productivity, by aligning roles to workflows and processes, thereby shifting emphasis from tasks to outcomes and integrating all functions across the organization
• Effective usage of resources by automating standard processes – significantly reducing paper based manual work
• Consolidating information from various points in the works procurement cycle thereby increasing visibility and intelligence
• Enforcing standardization through templates helps in improving compliance and accountability.

Information technology is also gaining importance in the field of building plan approvals. The government machinery has effectively implemented development control rules considering the development of a city. But with every passing year, a certain stress is created to amend the development control rules. The complexities of development control (DC) rules pose a challenge to architects and construction professionals in the form of subjectivity in interpreting bye laws and delays due to manual processes. This creates a fertile ground for introducing IT solutions. SoftTech's national award winning product AutoDCR® effectively bridges this gap. AutoDCR® is a unique and innovative e-governance solution for automation of building plan scrutiny and approval. It reads CAD drawings and maps them to the development control regulations for approval by municipal corporations and approving authorities. AutoDCR® has simplified the way proposals are submitted and approved:

• Architects submit the plan on a CD by putting in the basic data of a proposal to a 'Single' window.
• After automated scrutiny of the documents, a date for site visit of the building inspector or concerned officer is notified to Architects and concerned Building Inspectors via SMS.
• The software supports palm interface whereby the visiting building inspector or officer at site will capture site visit report along with photograph on a PDA device.
• Ownership, NOC and other documents related to plan approval are scrutinized.
• AutoDCR completes the drawing based scrutiny.
• Final Scrutiny reports and MIS reports are generated and published.

Once a building plan is approved the ball is set rolling with greater energy. In today's times of limited and expensive resources, managing a construction project is a gigantic task strewn with challenges of varied nature. Construction management is a zone where adaptability of IT tools is fast gaining pace. SoftTech's OPTICON™ is a ready-to-implement comprehensive construction ERP that specifically meets the requirements of the construction industry. Construction business management is a dynamic field, facing newer opportunities and challenges. With every passing year- OPTICON™ is built to satisfy the ever changing needs of estimation, tendering, project planning and control.


As the cost of land and material is going up and limited resources are at hand, the industry has started to realize the need and importance of IT and latest communication technology. For a construction enterprise to address its growth challenges, IT tools are perhaps the only solution. The adoption of IT in the Indian construction industry is quite low, there is little awareness among the Indian builders regarding Building Information Modeling, and construction ERP. In order to manage growth, companies and government organizations will have to adopt latest technology tools.