TN to amend Town and Country Planning Act

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu government is seriously considering certain amendments to the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, according to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Phanindra Reddy.

Speaking to reporters after the inauguration of fifth edition of FAIRPRO 2012, the three-day biggest property exhibition, by Tamil Nadu assembly speaker D Jayakumar here on Friday, Reddy said the amendments would help in enabling better planning in certain unplanned areas and giving certain flexibility to the enforcing authority, subject to safety precautions.

Reddy also said the Inter-Departmental Enforcement Agency (IDEA) to curb illegal constructions is being fine tuned as requested by the High Court appointed monitoring committee. “We will put it in better shape during the next monitoring committee meeting,” he said.

IDEA, a multi-agency unit with ample representations from various departments, was formulated to curb unauthorized constructions.

According to a Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority report, 20,000 odd buildings of Ordinary, Special, Institutional and multi-storeyed categories mushroom every year in Chennai Metropolitan Area and nearly one-third of these buildings are built with deviations in some form or the other to an already approved plan.

Reddy also assured real estate developers of taking adequate measures to improve the approval process and make planning as easy and painless as possible.

Earlier, Jayakumar said that the state government is going to allocate 20 per cent of budget allocation to improve basic infrastructure.

Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India president T Chitty Babu said vowed to back the state in its efforts to build state’s infrastructure. He said FAIRPRO 2012 is showcasing 250 properties which is approved by the authorities and the legal opinion is verified and checked by CREDAI. He said CREDAI is expecting up to one lakh visitors to the expo.