2013 has seen the city’s landscape and horizons changing significantly, with the maximum number and widest-ever range of residential and commercial projects completed.
The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has given “completion certificates” to 260 major projects including multi-storeyed and special buildings in the period from January to September 13 this year — the highest number under the Second master Plan.
According to developers, the data signifies the “rising building stock in the metropolitan area”. As there are a larger number of buildings being built these days, there is also intense competition among builders to market the built-up space. “Now, we are able to market the residential or commercial space only if we have a completion certificate. MNCs insist on the certificate even for signing the lease agreement,” said a developer.
A spate of new buildings — multi-storeyed and special buildings — has changed the skyline. Special buildings are residential or commercial buildings with more than two floors, residential buildings with more than six dwelling units and commercial buildings exceeding a floor area of 300 square metres.
Multi-storeyed buildings are those structures exceeding four floors and those rising to a height of 15.25 metres or higher.
“There is also awareness among buyers on the need for completion certificates,” said M.K. Sundaram, former chairman of the Builders Association of India, southern centre.
Lat year, the highest number of planning permissions ever was issued. In 2011 too, 431 special buildings and 39 IT and multi-storeyed buildings were approved by the CMDA. Most of the construction works have been completed now.
The city’s second master plan, introduced in 2008, relaxed the minimum width of a road on which buildings can be built.
Earlier, special buildings were only permitted on 10-metre wide roads. Now, they are permitted on roads that are nine metres wide. As many city roads span nine metres, the number of applications for special buildings has increased.
The procedure of insistence on compliance report from other agencies, including Chennai Corporation, TNPCB, Revenue Department, ELCOT and Police (Traffic) has also been dispensed with recently. This has also contributed to a rise in completion certificates.
