The Chennai Corporation on Friday will launch a ‘green channel’ for building approval and planning permission in the 15 zones of the city.
Building permits will be issued in seven days under the ‘green channel’. The facility will be applicable for ordinary buildings with ground plus one floor or stilt plus two floors.
As per the existing system, the civic body issues permits to buildings in 30 days. However, most applications are delayed by months because of the time consumed in processing applications.
At least 2,000 building constructions are expected to begin on time every year with the launch of the ‘green channel,’ an official said.
“The Corporation will issue building approval in seven days based on a declaration by the applicant. The inspection of the site will be done later. The Corporation will initiate action if any deviation is noticed later,” said an official of the Corporation.
The town planning department of the Corporation has been issuing permits under the Town and Country Planning Act too for ordinary commercial buildings of ground-plus floors, industrial and school buildings of unlimited area, and layouts with maximum area of 2 hectares.
The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority too has a ‘green channel’ for planning permission. Site inspection is carried out within 30 days of issuance of permission.
Yet, the CMDA’s green channel is not popular because of the ‘risk’ of cancellation of licence of registered architect or licensed surveyor in the case of misrepresentation of facts. However, the Corporation’s green channel is likely to be more popular because small residential units are the beneficiaries.
CMDA issues planning permission only to major developments including special buildings, group developments, and multi-storeyed and IT buildings.
Applications can be submitted at the respective zonal offices of the Corporation.
“The corporation should increase manpower for town planning. Generation of planning permission application number takes more than a week because of the online approval process. The Corporation should take efforts to streamline the system to make the ‘green channel’ popular,” said K. Suresh Kumar, a licensed surveyor.
