CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is set to amend the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act by introducing an additional provision to make Transferrable Development Rights (TDRs) legally binding.
It is learnt that the government is to amend Section 35 of the Act wherein the clause pertaining to TDR will be included. Initially, the government had framed rules for implementing TDR but it did not have statutory backing.
TDRs allow governments to acquire land in exchange for development rights. These rights allow for properties to be developed in other areas of the city and those having TDRs can use the rights themselves or sell it to developers.
Since the State did not have a legal backing for sale of TDRs, the proposed amendment could facilitate cheap and rapid land acquisition while redirecting development to other under-developed areas of cities or important urban goals like affordable housing.A former planner said TDRs can be made successful if they can be made accessible and a comprehensive database is established for TDRs.
It has been suggested that the government establish a TDR market or bank to buy, hold and resell.There is lack of mechanism of trade and price discovery as Chennai is not an active TDR market and there are no special incentives for builders, sources said. Even the policy of TDR is a document driven one wherein loss of development right certificate would result in owner losing the entitlement to certificate.
Factfile
Transferable development right first emerged as a policy in the US in 1960s. It was used to preserve certain parts of city which had historic buildings
In India, TDR was first implemented in Mumbai in 1991 to acquire land for public amenities like gardens and roads
Between 1991-2004, more than 21,00,000 sq metre of land was surrendered through TDR in Mumbai for road and slum redevelopment
In Bengaluru, TDR was initated in 2005 to help government with large-scale infrastructure projects
Transferrable Development Rights was issued in the second master plan and has only a few takers in Chennai. It is learnt it is due to a lack of mechanism of trade and price discovery as Chennai is not an active TDR market