CMDA declares 600 acres in Madambakkam for land pooling

CHENNAI: Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has issued a declaration of intention to implement Madambakkam Land Pooling Area Development Scheme covering 600 acres of land.

The land pooling scheme will cut the industrial and housing project costs by several times as the government need not to pay money for land acquisition.

As per the declaration of intention, private and public lands of irregular shapes that lack public access, infrastructure facilities and public facilities will be pooled.

The pooled lands will be reconstituted and redistributed into regular shaped plots. The scheme covers Madambakkam, Agaramthen and Kovilanchery villages.

The objective of the scheme is to provide proper road access to all plots and basic facilities like park, playground, open space and public amenities.

The authority will return back the reconstituted plots to the extent of not less than 60 per cent of the land to the plot owners with appreciated value.

In February, the government notified the Tamil Nadu Land Pooling Area Development Scheme Rules, 2024, even though the land pooling scheme was mooted 5 years ago.

The state government revamped the provisions of The Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning (Third amendment) Act, 2018, to implement Land Pooling Area Development Scheme.

The Land Pooling Rules specify stages of implementation of the scheme under section 39 of Town and Country Planning Act.

Under the rules, the CMDA or other planning authority has to publish the preliminary scheme within 9 months after declaring the intention, after which two months would be given to public and land owners to file objections or suggestions to the scheme.

As per the rules, the copy of the approved scheme will be sent to the registration and revenue departments for updating and mutation of revenue records.

Within 9 months of announcing the preliminary scheme, a final proposal will be prepared, after which grievances or appeals will be heard in the next two months. The final scheme will be then published and the process of providing land pooling ownership certificate will begin.

The state housing and urban development department had released draft rules for land pooling area development scheme in February 2020.

Survey numbers and maps included in the scheme have been kept in the CMDA office and released on CMDA's official website.