CHENNAI: As per the amendment in the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act, 2025, that came into force earlier this year, the housing department has now notified the online portal for single window clearance of all development-related applications across the state.
The portal https://onlineppa.tn.gov.in will be the single-window for applications relating to land development, change of land use, and issuance of completion certificates under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971.
The mandatory shift to a unified digital platform is expected to standardise approval processes across municipal corporations, local bodies and planning authorities, replacing a patchwork of physical and partially online systems.
S Sridharan, CREDAI national executive committee member, and chairman of lyra properties PVT Ltd, said that non-high rise buildings and high rise buildings have already been brought under the ambit of online window portal. Now completion certificate and reclassification will also come online. The government should ensure that the software works without glitches.
While welcoming the move as a step towards transparency and a paperless regime, S Ramaprabhu, chairman of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning and CMDA Committee of the Builders Association of India, said, “The government must fix a clear timeline for granting approvals - such as disposing of applications within 30 days.” He added that developers often face delays because district-level officials are not fully updated on the latest rules.
Implementation will require extensive back-end integration of local planning bodies, digitisation of legacy records and development of standard workflows to support end-to-end online processing.
The statewide single window is seen as a critical enabler for Tamil Nadu’s housing, industrial and infrastructure pipeline, offering a more predictable environment for developers and investors by reducing procedural inconsistencies across jurisdictions.
Housing and Urban Development additional chief secretary Kakarala Usha clears queries on the single window portal and its integration with local bodies and planning authorities. Edited excerpts:
What specific gaps in the existing planning approval system is the government aiming to address through the portal?
The earlier system was incomplete in certain aspects like monitoring the construction post approval till its completion. Now the portal covers end-to-end applications for planning/building permission, issue of digitally signed plans, e-intimation of various stages of construction up to completion of the building and issue of digitally signed completion certificates. The application process has been made more user friendly in the manner that once basic information is filled at the stage of application, the forms and letters in the subsequent stages of approval, NOCs, e-intimation and issue of completion certificate are auto-generated.
What is the rollout roadmap for integrating all local bodies and planning authorities with the portal?
In DTCP areas, all local bodies have been integrated. In CMDA area, town and rural panchayats have been integrated. Integration of CMDA with GCC, corporations and municipalities in CMDA areas is under progress and is expected to be completed within a month.
How will ongoing applications be migrated or handled during the transition period?
The applications for planning permissions were made online a long time ago. However, the applications were to be submitted offline in respect of obtaining NOCs of other departments. The applications for completion certificate and Change of Land Use have also been made online a month ago. Now there is no concept of offline applications in CMDA, DTCP or local bodies.
Is there a defined service-level timeline for processing applications on the portal to ensure predictable approvals?
Timelines have been prescribed for all the NOC issuing departments. Failure to issue NOC within the given timeframe will be construed as deemed approval. Since the single window portal is ready now with some leftover integration works which are expected to be completed within a month, the immediate focus of the government will be in fixing timelines for the approval.