Permitting is an approval procedure related to construction work, and prior approval from government offices or related departments(authority), and is a pre-condition for the start and finish on the construction work generally.
Thus permitting in the narrow meaning stands for limited approval process in connection with construction works, but in the broad sense, permitting refers to all administrative procedures related to the from Land purchase or Land use contract to build a factory, to cooperation with related organizations, and contractual completion
The importance of permitting in construction works is an undeniable fact that does not need to waste time and it is a compulsory condition that should be cleared. Therefore, Permit is “All or Nothing”, and there is no fuzzy status. So that delay in permit process affects the cost and schedule more than we expect.
On the process of permitting, the most crucial factors are below
What kind of license is required for the start and completion of construction work?
- Is it a mandatory permit, or Are there any way to simplify or omit?
- Is there any chance to shorten the approval duration from submission to obtain a permit?
The type of Permit
Categorizing permit by timeline, It is able to say Pre-Construction, Completion of Construction and Prior to factory operation, The name of crucial permit at each steps are able to define as below
- Building Permit
- Occupancy Permit
- Operation Permit
As a common sense same with Korean practice, starting of construction shall be implemented upon obtaining building permit.
Building permit
It is required to submit as below documents as birth stage PM involve
- Process description and brief information for factory to be built.
- Total area, elevation and ground plan view of factory as elementary information
- Layout and floor plan and elevation plan at each floor
- Hazardous area classification on the building
- Seismic factor reviews and narratives for structure calculation
- Concept drawing for environmental protection such as noise, vibration, waste water and air pollution
- Concept drawing for fire fighting
- Utility connection drawing to existing system such as road, waste water network, sewage and rain water etc.
With this consideration, it is possible to prepare building permit after completion of basic design. Generally, this process must be handled under local municipality, which need to do perusal by more than 10 related departments for BP approval – approximately 60 days in ordinary review duration.
On this point to meet construction schedule, below topics are few but necessary steps or permits in order to submit building permit which are cleared prior to submission of building permit either approval of building permit
- EIA : Environmental Impact Assessment
This is needful to initiate first meeting for investment with HIPA and its following negotiation. EIA must describe that what kind of products are manufactured, what is key process to produce final product, which type of utility and chemical are being consumed and how certain to secure safety to us for pre-approval.
We have discovered that not sufficient information provided to local authority may happen to delay the review process to convince due to severely strict information policy, this must be evitable with open information as client accept to disclose.
- Land use / purchase contract
The industrial compound in Hungary is not ran by country or local municipality, also that is not sale in lot with full readiness of infrastructure to use. There are many compounds which belongs to individual or not state-owned, and some of cased are being conducted with preparation of infrastructure together with sales so that we need to check status of land and ownership what might be happened to many of cases – Land split or land merge, different regulation to be applied for permit issue and land ownership transfer through purchasing specific pad of land. Therefore it is recommended to consider for cost, topographical investigation, unit rate of utility system and its readiness to supply at terminal point along with priority approach.
- ERD : Archaeological investigation
This report is the process of examining the presence of cultural properties on the site(underground) where the building or factory will be built, and this must be cleared before issuance of building permit must be completed before the issuance of the building permit. Specifically, it is divided into two stages. The first stage is a documents survey on the bibliography for site area, and historical document review will be conducted to check which artifacts have been released in the vicinity of the site. In case of high possibility to presence of artifacts after document review, practical survey to excavate certain spot would be necessary to make sure whether okay to start civil work. After that, an official report is issued based on this, it is used as a preliminary document required for issuing a building permit.
- Explosive ordnance investigation
As you know, Hungary was one of the battlefields of the World War II in the past, and in some cases, dangerous objects such as unexploded bomb were found on the premises. This will be determined by practical site investigation, and after that the actual existence of hazardous objects through test excavation or the relics survey with metal detectors to eliminate this kind of risk. Normally, Archaeological investigation can be executed at the same time with this step, but the related departments are different.
Occupancy Permit
In Korean way of thinking, it is approved for completion of building either factory as per drawings that submitted on building permit issuance and the following tests and certificates are requested while authority reviews whether the conditions for issuing a permit for using are fulfilled. Therefore, all relevant documents and certificates must be prepared and collected prior to completion of construction.
- CE (Conformity European) Certificate
All materials shall be used CE certified materials. This applies to all bulk materials not only for equipment.
- Fire proofing and Explosion proofing
Basically, we must use the material according to a separate fire rating grade from materials list certified by CE. When It is designated as an explosion-proof area, the European regulations ATEX certified products must be used.
- PED (Pressure Equipment Directive)
As a certification for pressured vessels, it can be cited to “OSHA Technical Manual (OTM)
OSHA Instruction TED 01-00-015 [TED 1-0.15A]” For example, Boiler, Air receiver tank, Filter, etc..
- Elevator
This is same concept to interpret for detail items to apply “Elevator Safety checklist or management”.
- Firefighting Test
As most critical item of building or factory to use, it is checked whether a fire hydrant, sprinkler, fire extinguishing water tank, fire detection device, evacuation route and its material constructed according to the approved drawing and certified materials
- EDR(Endpoint detection and response)
It can be treated a firefighting test in broad way of meaning. In case of a fire, when the fire department examine to communicate with wireless communication, a practical check will be conducted before submission of occupancy permit. If test is not satisfied with criteria, signal repeater shall be installed additionally
Only after the above tests and certificates are completed, the application for occupancy permit can be processed, and the approval would be taken approximately 15 calendric days.
Operation Permit
Comparing to Korean way of working, it is a procedure for reporting (or approval) the commencement of technical operation in a factory, and it is a permission procedure that must be obtained prior to manufacturing any kinds of product apart from approval of occupancy permit. Since the occupancy permit is related to the safe use of the building, this permit is related to the stability of the production facility and equipment.
Therefore, it is essential to comply with the previously approved EIA, and in some cases, more detailed EIA documentation may be required to present to authority when walkdown for operation permit.
In particular, the review is conducted from two perspectives, the first is the review related to environmental factors such as air pollution, wastewater, and sewage, and another is the review related to the occupational safety for workers.
Another important point is that even if production equipment is manufactured/supplied in Korea, it must comply with EU standards, hence whole equipment is must be proven by CE certification. Clearing up until this stage, you will obtain signa to produce.