Construction and acceptance of facilities simplified in Belarus. How new approaches are applied in practice
November 10, 2025
Construction and Acceptance of Facilities Simplified in Belarus. How New Approaches are Applied in Practice
Construction and commissioning of facilities have been simplified in Belarus. Decree No. 46 of January 31, 2025, which introduced the norms, came into force in May. The document is intended to optimize processes, including accelerating procedures. Anna Kudravets, Deputy Head of the Main Department - Head of the Project Management, Urban Planning and Architecture Department of the Ministry of Architecture and Construction of the Republic of Belarus, told journalists how new approaches are applied in practice.
Facility Acceptance
One of the sections of the decree concerns the simplified acceptance of facilities built according to design documentation and without significant changes. They can be accepted based on the conclusion of the State Construction Supervision without obtaining conclusions from other regulatory bodies. Such conditions apply to facilities erected according to repeatedly used projects, as well as according to design and estimate documentation that has undergone a full cycle of state expertise.
"Even if changes were made during the process, the presence of an expertise conclusion is mandatory. This is where the limiting factor was revealed - the perception of these two norms as a combination of conditions (for repeatedly used design documentation and with expertise), which is incorrect. These are two separate meanings," explained the specialist.
This approach is also allowed for facilities that were mothballed and are being completed after work resumes.
Simplified Construction
Practical issues also arise regarding the section that defines the procedure for simplified construction and the subsequent acceptance of such buildings. The primary step the customer must take is to assess the object's compliance with the criteria (complexity classes 4-5, absence of prohibitions). Additionally, construction must be carried out on the provided land plot without changing its intended purpose.
It is also important to ensure that the permitted loads on engineering networks will not be exceeded. "Information on maximum permissible loads is determined by the customer based on existing supply agreements for a particular resource, concluded with the operating organization that owns the infrastructure facilities. Moreover, such information should in no case be considered as technical specifications for engineering and technical support of facilities, issued as part of the permitting documentation. This means that such organizations cannot impose additional requirements on the customer or the object," informed the representative of the Ministry of Construction and Architecture.
After assessing the possibility of applying the decree's norms, a local normative legal act of the customer is adopted, stating that the project is implemented in a simplified manner: based on a design sketch and drawings. The next stage is mandatory registration in the EROKS (information system "Unified Register of Capital Construction Objects"). Subsequently, a design sketch is developed and coordinated with the relevant structural unit of the executive committee (in accordance with the administrative procedure in the Unified List of Administrative Procedures carried out in relation to business entities).
Safety Requirements
According to Anna Kudravets, the next stage is the preparation of drawings that must confirm safety and compliance with regulations (regarding the reliability of building structures, facilities, preparation of the construction site, including engineering protection, sanitary, and fire safety standards, etc.)
"To ensure such solutions, a national set of technical regulations and legal acts or methodological documents in the field of architectural and construction activities is applied," explained the specialist. "For facilities of the 4th complexity class, the developer of the drawings must have a certificate of conformity when developing design documentation for such facilities."
After the drawings are developed, the client and the developer must send a notification of the commencement of construction and installation works to the state construction supervision authorities. Construction can commence after the facility is registered.
"To ensure operational reliability and subsequent acceptance of the facility, the client is in no way exempted from maintaining executive documentation during construction. Only based on this data, due to the relaxations established by the decree, a more reduced list is provided than under the usual procedure," added Anna Kudravets.
Acts of inspection of hidden works, interim acceptance of structures, and individual testing of installed equipment must be provided without fail. The need to maintain documents on the conformity assessment of construction materials and products used at the facility remains.
Upon completion of construction, conclusions from supervisory authorities are obtained without fail (if their obtaining is required) depending on the functional purpose, with the exception of state energy and gas supervision authorities, as well as territorial emergency management authorities. "This is due to the fact that representatives of these organizations are subsequently part of the acceptance committees. Separate conclusions from them are not required," said Anna Kudravets.
The final stage is obtaining the conclusion of the state construction supervision authorities. Based on this, the customer and the developer establish an acceptance committee, the mandatory composition of which is specified in the annex to the decree. The results of the acceptance committee are formalized by an acceptance certificate in the form established by the Ministry of Architecture and Construction.
Detailed recommendations for the application of legislation are posted on the Ministry's website.
"Construction is a zone of responsibility for all participants in the life cycle of a building or structure," emphasized Anna Kudravets. "To