Challenging times for building panel

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

After having studied Physics at Scott Christian College and Journalism at the Asian College of Journalism, Aloysius now covers civic issues, urban planning and development for The Hindu in Chennai. »

E-mail: aloysius.x@thehindu.co.in

TOPICS

Tamil Nadu

Chennai

economy, business and finance

construction and property

interior policy

housing and urban planning

Technological innovations in the construction of multi-storied buildings are on the rise in the city, where vertical development has been gaining momentum.

This has made the task of civic body officials doubly challenging as they are faced with state-of-the-art building proposals and designs like never before. In many cases, the civic body does not have necessary norms in place to deal with building innovations.

Often, developers modify plan designs to address safety concerns raised by civic body officials.

On Friday, as many as 18 construction proposals were cleared by a multi-storied building (MSB) panel of the Chennai metropolitan area. The cleared proposals have been sent to the government for approval, an official said.

The MSB panel comprises representatives from various departments such as the traffic police, fire and rescue services, highways department, the Chennai Corporation, Public Works Department, Metrowater and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It is in charge of clearing planning permission applications for all types of multi-storied buildings including IT and ITES buildings.

The panel has begun scrutinising building plan proposals in a more stringent manner as the vertical growth of residential and commercial buildings is likely to have an impact on the disaster-preparedness of the city, an official said.

Multi-storied structures boasting state-of-the-art amenities and world-class designs must not compromise on safety in the event of natural calamities such as earthquakes, cyclone or tsunami, an official said. With builders employing newer techniques and advanced technology to guard against such risks, experts have a challenging task at hand. They have to now study additional technical aspects pertaining to building plan and design as part of MSB panel clearance.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority regulates developments in the 1,189 sq. km. of Chennai metropolitan area through issuance of planning permission under section 49 of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act 1971.