Balady Excavation Permit: Requirements and Timelines

A Balady excavation permit is the electronic license for excavation works within city limits, issued through the Balady platform of the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (MOMAH). Utility entities’ representatives apply, but many of the conditions fall on the contractor doing the work. In short: MOMAH lists one to two days’ processing for a new permit, emergency and building-connection requests are reviewed within 24 hours at most, and general excavation licenses run 30 days on highways and 60 days on main, secondary and local roads. This guide covers the requirements, the permit types and their periods, and how to track a permit once it is issued.

What is a Balady excavation permit and who applies for it?

MOMAH describes its “Request for Issuance of a New Excavation Permit” as an electronic service for utility entities such as electricity, water and telecom companies. Their representatives in the municipal infrastructure project coordination offices use it to obtain excavation permits within city limits, after coordinating with other entities.

The service is available online only, through the Balady portal or app. The applicant is the utility entity’s representative; the electricity contractor has to meet the conditions that apply to it and work within the license and its validity period.

Key terms used across Balady’s excavation services:

Infrastructure project coordination office

The municipal office where utility representatives are registered. They request permits on the platform through it, and it reviews emergency excavation requests.

Nasseq

Arabic: نسق. A Balady service for coordinating with the relevant entities so that excavation licenses can be issued, avoiding damage and duplicated works.

Shape File

A geospatial file mapping the excavation routes, required for new permits and building-connection permits.

Clearance certificate

The end point the new-permit conditions set for document validity: commercial registrations of the main contractor and subcontractors must stay valid throughout the excavation period until it is issued.

What are the requirements for a new excavation permit?

MOMAH’s service page lists the prerequisites; the main ones fall into three groups:

• Registered parties: utility representatives registered in the coordination office, and work teams (contractors, consultants and supervisors) registered with the municipality.
• Contractor eligibility: valid commercial registrations for the main contractor and all subcontractors for the whole excavation period until the clearance certificate, valid City Service Provider Classification Certificates, and pre-qualification with the municipality.
• Site files: Shape Files of the excavation routes, a site safety and security plan following the traffic control guide, and a traffic plan if a road must be closed.

Much of this list concerns the contractor rather than the utility entity: commercial registration, classification, pre-qualification and registered work teams. Because these are prerequisites, a single gap can hold up the whole request, however ready the routes and plans are. The service page lists further conditions beyond these, so check the full list there before you apply.

Nor is the safety plan a formality: it governs how the site, and the traffic around it, is managed during excavation. Our guide to excavation safety requirements covers what such a plan usually includes.

How long does processing take and how are fees calculated?

The new permit service lists a processing time of one to two days. That covers processing the request itself, so allow extra time for coordinating with other entities and preparing the files and plans before you submit.

Fees are not fixed. They vary with project scope and are calculated with Balady’s fee calculator, and the permit is issued only after payment. Your permits team should know when payment is expected, so that no execution schedule rests on a permit that has not been issued.

Which Balady excavation permit types matter to electricity contractors?

Alongside the new permit, MOMAH offers two services that matter particularly to electricity contractors: the emergency excavation permit and the building-connection excavation permit. The table compares the three as their service pages describe them.

Emergency permits: start on preliminary approval, file within 24 hours

The emergency permit is for failures that cannot wait. Work may begin on a preliminary approval, provided the formal request is submitted within 24 hours of the notification. The coordination office reviews it within 24 hours at most, and the permit is granted once the fee is paid.

The risk is that a crew busy fixing the fault misses the filing deadline, so log the notification time from the first minute. For handling this work internally, see our guide to maintenance and emergency work orders.

Building-connection permits: the work order is part of the request

This service lets a service provider request excavation for building connections through Balady, attaching the work order, proof of the building’s location, a Shape File of the excavation paths and a site safety and security plan. MOMAH describes four stages:

1. Coordination and approval

   The request is submitted with its attachments and reviewed within 24 hours at most.

2. Permit issue

   The permit is issued after approval; MOMAH lists the service as free.

3. Excavation

   Work follows the routes in the Shape File and the safety plan attached to the request.

4. Site closure

   The site is closed once the works are finished, which completes the service journey.

Since the work order is a core attachment, a contractor with complete, well-organised order data can assemble the request faster and avoid errors in order numbers or locations.

How long is an excavation license valid by road type?

In March 2024 the ministry announced new Excavation Licenses Regulations that set general excavation license periods by road category:

Coordination runs through the Nasseq service on Balady, to avoid damage and duplicated works between entities. For the contractor, that means fitting time on site inside the license period from the start, not discovering the expiry date days before it arrives.

These periods were announced for general excavation works. If your permit is an emergency or building-connection permit, check its own service page before assuming the same period applies. The same announcement gives different periods for other permit categories, so the period that counts is the one stated on your license.

What are the main contractor’s and subcontractors’ responsibilities?

MOMAH states that using subcontractors does not exempt the main contractor from liability for violations. You can share out the work, but not the responsibility.

The requirements reach subcontractors too. Commercial registrations must stay valid for the main contractor and every subcontractor throughout the excavation period until the clearance certificate, not just on application day. Valid classification certificates and pre-qualification with the municipality are required as well.

The classification certificate is requested online through Balady; MOMAH lists the service as free, with a stated duration of 5 to 60 days. With a range that wide, leaving the request to the last minute puts the whole project schedule at risk.

How does ELX handle excavation permits after they are issued?

ELX is a bilingual (Arabic/English) cloud (SaaS) service, hosted and operated by Matrix, that runs in the browser with no servers needed on the contractor’s side. It is built for electricity network contractors in Saudi Arabia to carry each utility work order from registration to archive. The permit is a stage of its own in the site survey and excavation permits module: it is obtained through Balady, then recorded and followed in ELX against its work order.

• The survey decides whether a permit is needed: if the survey team marks the job as needing a permit, the order enters the permits stage; otherwise it goes straight to Projects or Connections. See our guide to the Kashfia site survey.
• Permit details are required before relay: request date and number, license number, start date, duration, expiry and municipality. The order cannot move on to Projects or Connections until they are complete. Notes and attachments are recorded alongside, and the stage settings can make those mandatory too.
• A clear permit status: the screen shows the no-objection number from the work order and the permit’s status in ELX, open or closed; it switches to closed when the order is relayed.
• Earlier files at hand: survey and work order files open from the permit screen itself.
• A templated permit letter: ELX fills a permit application letter with the order’s data, lets you edit it in a rich-text editor and emails it to several addresses, with default recipients per template. It is an email, not a request filed on Balady.
• A stage time limit: the administrator sets a limit in days for the permits stage; when justification is mandatory, an overdue order cannot be relayed without a delay justification and supporting files. See work order management and our guide to stage time limits and delay justifications.

For managers, the dashboard shows permit-stage orders within and past their time limit, and the full work order report has a permit section with license number, municipality, request number and date, start, end, duration and status. When an order enters the stage, ELX sends a Telegram alert, plus WhatsApp when enabled, to users who can view that screen and have notifications on.

To see how each permit is tied to its work order day to day, read our guide to excavation permit tracking per work order, or request a demo to walk through the permits stage in ELX.

What should you check before a permit request goes in?

Review these points with the utility entity before the request is submitted on the platform, alongside the full list on the service page:

• The utility representative is registered in the municipal infrastructure project coordination office.
• Work teams (contractors, consultants and supervisors) are registered with the municipality.
• Commercial registrations of the main contractor and all subcontractors stay valid throughout the excavation period until the clearance certificate.
• City Service Provider Classification Certificates are valid, and the contractor is pre-qualified with the municipality.
• Shape Files of the excavation routes are ready and consistent with the site survey.
• The site safety and security plan follows the traffic control guide, with a traffic plan if a road must close.
• Coordination with other entities through Balady’s Nasseq service is complete.
• The permit type is clear: new, emergency or building connection.
• The schedule fits the license period for general works: 30 days on highways, 60 days on main, secondary and local roads.

Common permit mistakes to avoid

• Checking commercial registrations only on application day, when they must stay valid throughout the excavation period until the clearance certificate.
• Overlooking subcontractors’ documents, even though the main contractor remains liable for violations.
• Getting absorbed in an emergency repair and missing the 24-hour window for the formal request.
• Assuming 60 days for every road, when a general excavation license on a highway runs 30 days.
• Leaving the classification certificate request late, when its stated duration can reach 60 days.
• Leaving the permit’s expiry date in scattered messages instead of recording it on the work order as soon as the permit is issued; it can lapse before anyone notices, and the site may stop with it.