CURE Bill Grants More Powers to Citizens on Building Permits

Hyderabad: The Core Urban District (Integrated Governance) Bill, 2026 (“CURE Bill”) gives citizens greater power over construction permits, includes improved municipal services, including grievance redressal, and focuses particularly on improving the living standards of the urban poor. However, this comes with the cost of increased property taxes.

If a decision regarding construction permits is not taken by the relevant authority within the period stipulated for processing, the application will automatically be forwarded to the next higher authority. Even after escalation, if no decision is notified to the applicant or the senior officer does not process it, the provisions relating to the accepted approval will apply. The applicant may submit a notice to the Commissioner claiming approval.

Currently, despite BuildNow, a Building and Settlement Approval System with rapid review module, some files remain pending as officers do not process them and leave them in cold storage. Under the CURE Bill, such files will be sent to higher authorities for the next step of approval.

The bill also establishes a Gender Inclusion Cell. One of its roles is to collect data and conduct research to take an evidence-based approach to making CURE more inclusive and safer for women and transgender people.

It promotes night economy zones by marking areas that will promote economic activity, employment, tourism and vitality in urban areas.

Although many new components are part of the CURE Bill, common features of the GHMC Act, 1995 include the Standing Committee, the functioning model of urban local bodies (ULBs) and district committees. Key changes include the new night-time economy framework, as well as increased property tax assessment, a Unique Property Identification Number (UPIN) for each property, and a simplified single trade license for all businesses.

Other components include real-time multi-agency monitoring and emergency coordination, a strict ban on manual scavenging, a unified digital portal for all municipal services and separate cells for traffic management, environmental protection, food safety and disaster response.