Entire planning process under Chennai urban development body to go online by January 2021

CHENNAI: The entire planning process under the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority will go online from the first week of next year, according to an official source.

This comes as the Tamil Nadu government is working towards coming out with a Comprehensive Construction Portal which will integrate planning permission and building permission given by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and other local civic bodies.

It is learnt that the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has completed the trial for layout and completion certificate which is now ready to go online from next year. Apart from that, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is also working on bringing reclassification and enforcement processes online by the first week of January.

The move has been welcomed by developers but they are following a wait and watch policy at the moment. S Sridharan, CREDAI chairman, Tamil Nadu Chapter, told The New Indian Express that CREDAI needs to study the entire online process and how much time it takes for completing the entire planning permission. Currently, the planning permission exercise takes more than 90 days depending upon the size, says Sridharan.

Builders Association of India state treasurer S Ramaprabhu said though it is a welcome step, his association is keeping its fingers crossed.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has often been making announcements on moving planning permission online. The building plans, including applications for multi-storied buildings, were to be submitted and processed online. The log-in credentials were provided to all officials including the member secretary. But it was not fully implemented. The process was restricted to planning assistant and assistant planner level. As a result, developers have to visit the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority office every now and then.

K P Subramanian, a former professor of urban engineering at Anna University, said the move by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is welcome and will usher in transparency. "However, it should not be a half-hearted measure. It should be a whole-hearted one and earn goodwill while boosting the state's ranking in ease of doing business," he said.

Association of Professional Town Planners (APTP) president K M Sadanand said that the process could have initial hiccups and it should be reviewed every month after holding meetings with stakeholders  to ensure transparency. "The entire process has been delayed by more than a decade but now the issue is how we could take it forward from here," he says.

However, the biggest challenge now will be integration of various units of Housing and Urban department with those coming under Municipal Administration and Water Supply department in accordance with planning and building permissions. This includes integration of Directorate of Town and Country Planning, local bodies under commissionerate of Municipal Administration, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Greater Chennai Corporation, Directorate of Town Panchayats and rural development and panchayat raj in a comprehensive construction portal. The deadline to bring the entire state's planning and building permission online is March 31, 2021.