CHENNAI: In a bid to eliminate delays in clearing planning approvals for non-high-rise buildings, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has set a target to clear 60 applications a month.
Currently, planning permissions issued every month on average is around 40 to 45. The target was fixed during a high-level review of the performance of CMDA in giving planning approvals. Usually, the average number of days for issuance of planning permission takes a minimum of 23 days and a maximum of 72 days.
According to available data last year from January to December, CMDA got 641 applications of which 455 planning permissions were issued. Similarly, from January to June this year, 436 applications were received, and out of that permissions were issued to 283.
CMDA highlighted the lack of increase in approvals in May and June due to the diversion of resources to scrutinise local body files. Sources said that 22 personnel were diverted for clearing files and around 700 files were cleared. In the last six months, the pending applications rose from 235 in January to 345 in June.
According to the analysis of the pending files by the Tamil Nadu e-governance agency in the Chief Minister’s dashboard, in April, CMDA cleared only 35 (14.64%) of the 239 pending files and in May of the 232 pending files, only 31 (13.36%) were cleared.
Last month, housing secretary S Apoorva highlighted the delay during a meeting and quoted Rule 10 (3) of Tamil Nadu Combined Development Building Rules, which states that if all the details are being furnished by the applicant then planning permission should be given within 45 days. A provision to this rule prescribes that planning permission should be issued within 30 days for buildings less than 1200 sq feet floor area. She told the officials to adhere to it without fail.
Meanwhile, builders said that many applications could not go to the planning application stage itself due to software glitches. Builders Association of India state secretary S Rama Prabhu said they had highlighted the issue in February, adding more than 500 applications are pending due to this.