CMDA issues in-principle approval for 3,500 layouts

Even though the deadline for applying under the Regularization of Plots and Layouts Scheme ended in November 2018, the Housing and Urban Development Department allowed the planning authorities such as CMDA and DTCP (Directorate of Town and Country Planning) and local bodies to regularise individual plots in the layouts which had received in-principle approvals or applied to receive in-principle approval before the deadline. The department had issued a Government Order in this regard on February 5, 2019.

Meanwhile, the CMDA had recently released the list of layouts along with maps in its official website. According to the planning authority’s website, as many as 3,478 ‘in-principle approvals for layout frameworks’ have been issued since the government rolled out the amnesty scheme in May 2017.

In 2017, the CMDA had issued only 5 in-principle approvals, whereas, in 2018, the number of approvals issued rose to 2,911. This year, upto March 27, the authority had issued 562 approvals. However, the number is very low when compared to the total of unapproved layouts in the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA).

“The number of applications for regularising unapproved layouts flooded during the last week of the scheme and we received more than 1,000 applications in the week. Apart from 3,478 layouts that received in-principle approvals, there are 1,000 applications, which are sent to the CMDA before the deadline, are under process and the in-principle approvals will be issued in coming days,” a CMDA official said.

Individual plot owners could apply for regularising their plots in the approved layouts by paying charges fixed by the Housing Department.

For plots within the city Corporation (Chennai Corporation), regularisation charges of Rs 110 per square metre would be collected if the applications received from November 4, 2018 to May 3, 2019. For municipal areas, Rs 66 per sqm would be collected, while plots in town panchayats and village panchayats would attract a charge of Rs 33 per sqm.

For applications received from May 4 to November 3, Rs 125, Rs 75 and Rs 37.50 sqm for Corporation, municipality and rural panchayat areas will be charged, respectively. For the applications received from November 4, regularisation charges would be Rs 150, Rs 90 and Rs 45.