The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) may have delegated powers to the city corporation and local bodies around the city to issue planning permission for bigger buildings, but the agencies concerned do not have town planners for the purpose.
Last week, the CMDA gave the nod to the Greater Chennai Corporation to issue planning permission for all residential buildings that are up to 12 metres tall, are spread over 10000 sq ft with ground + two floors or stilt + three floors and do not comprise more than 16 dwelling units.
At present, the civic body has about 50 executive and assistant executive engineers to process planning permission requests for buildings that have ground + one floor or stilt + two floors. Each year, on an average, 6,000 planning permissions are issued in areas under the corporation limits.
Several residents are furious with the state of affairs. B Kannan, secretary of the T Nagar Residents Welfare Association, charged that the delegation of powers had been done by the CMDA without any vision. “How will the Greater Chennai Corporation process planning permissions for larger buildings without technical expertise,” he asked.
Urban development experts said that the impact would be felt in the city’s neighbourhood such as municipalities, town panchayats and village panchayats where the officials concerned may grant plan approval for all residential buildings of a height upto 12 meters, with a maximum area of 7,000 sq ft with ground + two floors or stilt + 3 floors and not having more than eight dwelling units.
Builders Association of India chairman (southern centre) S Ramaprabhu said the CMDA was deputing its town planners to panchayat unions for processing applications in such local bodies. “The practice of deputing officials must be stopped and town planners should be appointed in the respective local bodies in the wake of powers being delegated,” he said.
When contacted, municipal administration secretary Harmander Singh told that adequate training had been imparted for engineers in local bodies to process the applications pertaining to building permissions. “Civil engineers have the capacity for handling this,” he added.