Unauthorised plots in Chennai bought till 2007 may get approval

Chennai

There’s relief on the way for people who have bought plots in unapproved residential layouts. If the state government has its way, all residential plots registered before July 1, 2007 will be given approval after levying a penalty, as has been done in the case of illegal buildings.

Following a proposal from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), the government is contemplating relaxing norms for approval of unauthorized layouts that have proliferated over the last few years in the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) and in areas under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP).

The suggestion was made at a meeting of the CMDA’s top decision-making body. As of now, only residential plots registered before December 31, 1989 are approved under the regularization scheme in operation in CMA limits. However, on receipt of the CMDA proposal, the government has taken a view that instead of limiting the exercise to CMA, it should look for a comprehensive solution to all unapproved residential layouts that have sprung up across the state. In this regard, the state housing department has chosen to work in coordination with municipal administration and rural development departments.

A senior official said, “Since municipalities that fall under the municipal administration department and village panchayats under the rural development department have been delegated some powers to approve plots, any solution without taking them on board will remain a piecemeal effort. We also need to involve the land registration department also to ensure that registration of unapproved plots do not take place in future. Otherwise, once we regularise old violations, there will be new violations. The chief secretary will soon convene a meeting to finalise the action plan”.

A CMDA official said the problem of unauthorised plots was not a major one in CMDA limits, where the regulatory body has done zoning of all land, determining their use. But in DTCP limits, very few cities and towns have prepared development master plans.

A DTCP official said, “Unapproved residential layouts continue to spring up across the state. Many promoters who are stuck with large areas of agricultural wetlands are converting them into residential layouts and selling them with the connivance of village panchayat presidents and ward members. Despite the government clarifying time and again that approvals from village panchayats have no legal sanctity and buyers cannot avail bank loans on such plots, people continue to buy them”.

The problem became acute after the state imposed restrictions on conversion of agricultural wetlands into residential plots in January 2011. “The government should ban firms selling unapproved layouts from real estate activity and take strict action against panchayat presidents and ward members who approve unauthorised layouts,” a realtor said.

Source: The Times of India, Chennai

Comprehensive infra plan needed in Chennai suburbs

Chennai

The suburbs will have to wait a while before they catch up with the city when it comes to having reasonably priced civic amenities, say urban planners.

”Now, residential projects are coming up in the Outer Ring Road project areas,” says K P Subramanian, former professor at Anna University’s urban engineering department. Projects have been announced before the land acquisition was complete, he adds. “Most of these areas, including Oragadam and Sriperumbudur, don’t have water supply, sewerage system or health and recreation facilities. Here, housing projects come before development of social infrastructure as all you need is a road connection to your plot for permission to build mini-townships,” says M G Devasahayam, a trustee of SUSTAIN, an NGO in urban development.

The problem is compounded by the fact that development control rules meant for the city are being applied in suburbs. According to a CMDA official, a highrise is allowed if the approach road is of a certain width, the logic being that wider roads in the city will have stormwater drains, underground sewerage and electricity lines.

Planning permissions inside the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) are based on whether the builder gets ‘No Objection’ certificates from Metrowater, electricity boards, traffic and fire services. However, a promoter building a 27-storeyed complex beyond Uthandi, outside CMA limits, will approach the directorate of town and country planning and local authorities who don’t thoroughly scrutinise the applications, says the official.

According to former CMDA chief planner Anantharanjan Das, it will take time before the law and market catch up with the fast-paced development in and around Chennai. “In the 1930s and 40s, the electric railway line was the only way to reach places like Tambaram. Sensing the development potential, people moved to suburbs along the railway line and areas like Nanganallur were carved out,” says Das. In the early days, the suburbs didn’t have tarred roads or amenities. The next wave of migration was to ECR that primarily attracted people with enough means to own cars to ferry them back to the city from their farm houses.

The development of the IT Corridor again saw middle class families moving to the suburbs. “The accumulated development of last 30 years happened in the space of 10 years,” says Das, who along with his team prepared an infrastructure plan for the IT Corridor up to Siruseri in 2000. Now, projects are going beyond Melmaruvathur along NH45, Maraimalai Nagar and Chengalpet in Kancheepuram. It is a market economy where developers can’t be held responsible for providing social infrastructure. “The market will catch up with the pace. Koot Road that connects southern suburb Madipakkam with Medavakkam resembles a mini-T Nagar with its shops. The situation will improve the government acts,” he says. It is also up to the government, which collects `100 per sqft as infrastructure charge from builders, to prepare a development plan and implement it, he says.

Source: The Times of India, Chennai

Norms for affordable housing eased in Chennai

Chennai

The Tamil Nadu government has been devising schemes to encourage development of affordable housing across the state. A number of measures initiated in the recent past, the following need special mention.

According to official sources, the minimum plot extent required for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) is only 20 sq m within Chennai City and in rest of the Chennai Metropolitan Area it is only 40 sq m In case of EWS plots, the front setback and rear setback requirement is one metre only and no side setback is required.

In cases of residential or predominantly residential developments, where dwelling units for Economically Weaker Sections do not exceed 30 sq m in floor area each, 50 per cent of normally permissible FSI is additionally allowable over and above the normally permissible FSI; and where dwelling units for Low Income Groups do not exceed 50 sq m in floor area each, 30 per cent of normally permissible FSI is additionally allowable over and above the normally permissible FSI; provided that the developer or promoter or owner shall not sell these dwellings for other than the said purposes and no conversion or amalgamation shall be permissible in these cases.

In cases where the extent of the residential layout exceeds 10,000 sq m (1 hectare) ten per cent of layout area (excluding roads) shall be developed as EWS plots and the owner or developer or promoter shall sell these plots only for this purpose. No conversion or amalgamation shall be permissible in these cases of EWS plots.

In cases where the extent of the site where residential or predominantly residential developments proposed exceeds 10,000 sq m (1 hectare), the developer shall reserve minimum ten per cent of the site area (excluding roads if any handed over to local body) and provide housing thereon for low income groups with dwelling units not exceeding 45 sq m in floor area each, either within the site proposed for Special Building development/Group development/MSB development or in a location within a radius of 2 km from the site under reference. The developer or promoter or owner shall sell these small dwellings only for this purpose. No conversion or amalgamation shall be permissible in these cases of lower income group dwellings.

V Nagarajan, Property Consultant

For original source visit: http://content.magicbricks.com/norms-for-affordable-housing-eased-in-chennai/

Tamil Nadu govt to push for Chennai Mega Region

Chennai

With the city expanding at a fast pace, expectations for better infrastructure are running high.

The state government is mulling the CMDA’s proposal to declare Chennai Mega Region for better regional planning on the lines of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad, since the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) extending to 1,189 sq km was declared four decades ago.

The second master plan has foreseen larger development outside the Chennai Metropolitan Area along the Rajiv Gandhi Salai (IT corridor), Grand Southern Trunk Road and Grand Western Trunk Road in areas around Sriperumbudur, Kelambakkam, Tiruvallur and Maraimalai Nagar. Sources said the CMA area will be extended up to 8,000 sq km. The CMDA has already submitted a preliminary report to the government in this regard.

Source: The Times of India, Chennai