CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Combined Development Rules (TNCDR) faces a legal challenge at Madurai bench of Madras High Court after the judges observed that all orders passed under the rule, are subject to the outcome of a writ petition.
Official sources told TNIE that the State government is going to file a counter in the case and approvals will continue to be given, as there is no stay in the case.
KP Subramanian, a former professor of urban engineering at Anna University, who filed the petition in the Madurai Bench of Madras high Court, told TNIE that he has challenged the TNCDR as no study has been done while passing the rules.
He said that the Development Regulations across the State could not have been amended without a proper infrastructure assessment considering the effect it has on the infrastructural facilities, thereby affecting the quality of life. The object of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act and the Development Regulations made thereunder, through the Second Master Plan, is to provide facilities for housing, commerce and industry, provisions of schools and playgrounds, medical and transport facilities and clean environment, through which the State aims at providing a better quality of life to its residents, he says. The Combined Development Rules cannot subvert the purpose and policy of the legislative enactment, he added.
However, developers back the State government. The Combined Development Rules for the first time, has all rules relating to property and development in a single book. The Rules were framed after a Technical Committee took into account the Model Building By-Laws 2016 of Government of India, National Building Code, 2016, National Urban Transit Oriented Development Policy, Ease of Doing Business requirements, the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda 2016 and India Infrastructure Report, 2018, says S Sridharan, chairman of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, Tamil Nadu chapter.
But the former professor rejects the argument. He says that no study has been done with regard to floor space index in the entire State, as has been done in Chennai. “CMDA has sponsored impact studies before deciding on the increase in FSI in the influence area of Mass Rapid Transit System and the Metro Rail Phase I. However, the government didn’t think it fit to make similar studies, when the FSI was increased for the entire state of Tamil Nadu, that too at a steep rate,” says the former professor.