Drainage Takes it to the Roadsby Yasser Noor, Head of GIS
Section, Drainage Division |
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The Road Opening Unit of the Drainage Division of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture (MMAA) in Qatar, is responsible for processing the Road Opening Application forms referred to as RO1 for its division. The RO1 is a form prescribed by the MMAA's Civil Engineering Department (CED) to all agencies or individuals who require any services done below the surface of the ground which is referred to as Road Opening. Currently the entire process, right from the registration to generating the RO2 is being performed manually.
The RO1
Application has the following process flow in the existing
system:
- Numerous applications are received on a daily basis. This requires a lot of paperwork, written communication, each application accompanied by additional documents and attachments in the form of Maps, Standard Drawings, covering letters from each section.
- It advances through various stages of approval from different sections within the drainage division itself, like the Foul Sewer & Surface Ground Water Sewers (SWS), Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) Network, House Connection Unit & Area Engineers, etc.
- Each Head of Unit approves or disapproves an application form giving reasons for the same.
Processing these applications manually is slow and tedious. This naturally gives rise to error and confusion. Many a time, wrong reference numbers are entered while others are duplicated. Since the papers require approval from various internal sections and area engineers, sometimes they wind up in the wrong hands causing delay and inconveniences. Some of the applications are misplaced or even lost.
To avoid this predicament and quicken the procedure, the GIS Section of the drainage division was assigned the task of streamlining this entire process of approving the RO1 application forms within the drainage division. Based on the results of a user needs study that was conducted, an initial system design was created and then further refined to suit the needs of the Road Opening Unit.
The application is designed to minimise the amount of errors; paper documents and increase the turnaround time of the approval process itself. For this reason it was developed using front end tools like Visual Basic and Map Object for incorporating maps with Oracle 7 serving as the backend database to store all information & data flowing through the system. The Spatial Data is retrieved from a central server in the form of ESRI shape files and Arc/Info coverage.
In the new automated system, the RO1 Application has the following process flow :
Once an application is received, the data from RO1 is entered into the system, including the area of interest (where the proposed work is to be carried out) on a map. It is then registered by the system and a Tracking number is assigned to the application form for future references and status tracking. Once registered, the application is automatically forwarded to the corresponding sections or persons over the network immediately. This helps reduce the delivery time involved with sending the application from one section to another and prevents delivering it to the wrong person.
Another advantage of this automated system is its On-line status report which gives the current position of the application, whether approved or not, etc. Previously, the document could not be tracked while in circulation.
The application is automatically forwarded to the next section after approval or disapproval from the previous one along with a digital signature from the person currently handling the RO1. It follows the order of Registration, existing & proposed Foul Sewers & SWS, TSE and finally to the area Engineers. There is also a facility to send the application back for reconciliation in case of any discrepancies.
On completion of the approval, the registrar would generate a RO2 and the corresponding forms and maps to be sent back to the requesting agency as hard copy.
The whole process, which previously took 6-8 weeks, is now completed in as early as a day. "This new application requires much lesser effort, cost effective and time saving. Anyone making enquiries will get their responses with the click of a few buttons," comments Yasser Noor, Head of the GIS Section at the Drainage Division.
"Basically, it is entirely a team's effort. It would not have been possible without the data and tools available and most especially the support of our Head and the staff from whom we received the background information. Once again, the GIS Section of the Drainage Division has added another feather to its cap with this new application, providing better and faster service to the users and the community at large with the help of GIS," concludes Mohamed Nishath.