The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) seems to have its own definition of ‘special building’ when it comes to providing power connections.
Sources said that the TNEB is insisting on a completion certificate only for those buildings which have a total of four floors (ground plus three floors), while those building having less than four floors have been termed ‘ordinary buildings’ by the board.
Interestingly, a residential or commercial building with more than two floors is a ‘special building’ as per the development regulation of the Second Master Plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area.This comes in the wake of the High Court passing orders on the Building Regularisation Scheme that to avoid future violations, buildings should be certified as ‘constructed in compliance of planning permit’ and that power and water connection should be contingent on such a certificate.
Following the HC order, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) introduced the system of issuing completion certificates, which would be a pre-requisite for obtaining power, water and sewer connections.
The completion certificate is to be insisted by the TNEB only for special building and multi-storied buildings, for which the CMDA issues the plan permission, and is not applicable to ordinary buildings. The issue was also highlighted during the sub-committee meeting of the monitoring committee recently to decide on imposition of heavy penalties against erring builders. The officials felt that the TNEB was having its own definition of special buildings.
What is a Special Building?
A residential or commercial building with more than two floors A residential building with more than six dwelling units A commercial building exceeding a floor area of 300 square metres.
