• Qatar launches an AI-powered building permit system, reducing approval time from 30 days to just 120 minutes efficiently.
• The system analyzes engineering drawings, compares consultancy inputs with plot data, and identifies discrepancies and potential design violations automatically.
• A detailed To-Do List is generated for required modifications, enabling faster pre-submission preparation and improving overall municipal service quality.

Qatar

Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality launched the AI-Powered Building Permit System. This is under the patronage of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

This is a fully integrated system for issuing building permits using this advanced technology. It aims to provide government services characterized by efficiency, speed, and accuracy 

This initiative seeks to accelerate digital transformation and employ modern technologies to enhance public services. This is in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the Third National Development Strategy.

The new system enables building permits to be issued within only 120 minutes instead of 30 days. This is due to its intelligent capabilities to read and analyze engineering drawings in accordance with approved standards and regulations.

Permit

The system processes data from the engineering plans submitted by the consultancy office, identifying proposed project elements. This includes buildings, setbacks, heights, areas, and room dimensions. It then automatically compares them with the data entered by the consultancy office in the permit request and the geographic data of the plot. 

Based on this, the system generates results through three main validation stages:

1. Structure Validation – Verifying the fundamental structure of the submitted proposal.
2. Review Discrepancies – Comparing AI-analyzed data from engineering drawings with the consultancy’s input data and the plot’s geographic data.
3. Review Violations – Identifying any design irregularities.

Based on these stages, the system issues a detailed To-Do List report highlighting elements that require modifications. This is before the consultancy submits the final request to the municipality. This step seeks to speed up the permit process and  enhance service quality by enabling pre-submission preparation.