Redevelopment of TNHB buildings caught in legal battle

Chennai

Redevelopment plans for around 50 apartments, originally promoted by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) in areas like Besant Nagar, Adyar, Anna Nagar and Shanthi Colony, are stuck in legal battles. What’s worse, many apartment complexes have already been razed and the owners are staying in rented premises waiting to move into their new houses.

The dispute between the apartment owners and the TNHB is over a premium (10% cost of the extra floor space index — FSI is the ratio of land area to the builtup area) that the latter is demanding for issuing no-objection certificates (NOC) for the redevelopment.

As the TNHB had underutilized FSI, many developers have shown interest in redeveloping such complexes, either through outright purchase or through joint-venture deals, with a view to capitalizing on the additional permissible FSI. This had led to a steep hike in the prices of old TNHB apartments in the city in recent years.

Since the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and the Chennai Corporation are not issuing plan approvals and building permits without an NOC from TNHB, redevelopment work on several projects is stuck.

The issue, which came up in various courts, has now been referred to a full bench of the Madras HC.

Source: The Times of India, Chennai