Growing instances of building violations is worrying city residents who demand swifter action on their complaints.
Families living in an apartment complex on Sterling Road, for instance, have been struggling with a promoter who built a multi-storey residential building without any setback right next door. The families complained that the building under construction was being raised on the compound wall of their apartment complex, which is more than 20 years old.
They complained that the construction was posing a huge risk with cement and chunks of brick falling on inside their premises.
Residents of Easdale Enclave also complained to the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority with the hope that swift action would be taken to put an end to the violation. However, the CMDA, the city’s principal planning agency, has forwarded the complaint to the Chennai Corporation instructing it to take appropriate action.
The residents alleged that the building under construction had been violating even basic safety rules and setback norms and that there was no excuse for any form of delayed action from the government agencies and they had to act before any untoward incident took place, they said. Families of a multi-storey residential complex on Valluvar Kottam High Road pointed out to construction activity in the neighbouring plot with the building being raised on their compound wall.
Activists said the government seems to be unable to keep building violations, especially of small and medium housing projects in the central business district under check. Sources said that while violations of buildings norms were causing havoc in the city, the government agencies, on receipt of a complaint, had to first check the characteristic of the locality. For instance, end-to-end construction was permitted in many ‘continuous building areas’ in the city.
Sources in the Department of Housing and Urban Development said inadequate field staff in CMDA was an important reason they were unable to act immediately on complaints.
Corporation sources said the local body placed many buildings under lock-and-seal except in cases where they had issued planning permission.
If the building was approved by the CMDA, they had no role to play. In this case too, the Corporation was asked to take the follow up action as the CMDA did not have enough staff.
The original planning permission issued to the builder would be perused and only after a detailed site inspection, could they comment on the actual violation, officials said.
