CMDA grants permission to raise height of special buildings

Official Government Order will be passed soon, say CMDA officials

The decision to increase the maximum permissible height for special buildings to 17 m was taken recently by the CMDA. -FILE PHOTO

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has removed the ceiling in height fixed so far for special buildings — ground plus four floors in the city’s metropolitan limits.

While this will not pave the way for an increase in additional floors or homes, the move is bound to bring relief for construction of multi-storied buildings, which are hard-pressed for vehicle parking space.

Maximum permissible height

 The decision to increase the maximum permissible height for special buildings to 17 m from the existing 15.25 m was taken during a meeting of the monitoring committee of the city’s planning agency last week.

Sources in the construction industry, who also who took part in the meeting, said the stake holders were firmly of the opinion that all floors that are occupied – “habitable space” as they are called – should have equal height and that the maximum height should be pushed to 17 metres. Currently, homes on certain floors have more space – more height between floor and ceiling – than others.

As per Development Control Regulations, only hospitals were permitted to construct to a maximum of 17 metres (in the case of ground/stilt plus four floors). An office-bearer of Builder’s Association of India, Chennai, explained that due to the restrictions, most builders allowed car parking lots to have a height of 2.5 metre in buildings with stilt flooring.

 “At times, beam depth (height of the stilt pillars) is not sufficient within the existing limit of 15.25 metres and hence violations tend to occur.

Further, even a slight increase in the height of flats in all the habitable space will keep homes a lot more cooler in a city like Chennai,” he said.

The most important fallout of this development that will be passed on to occupants of homes will be an increase in vehicle parking area and space for families to store things inside apartments, another builder said.

Recommendations sent to government

While confirming the monitoring panel had given its consent to increase the height of special buildings, officials in CMDA said the recommendations had been sent to the State government. They were waiting for an official Government Order to be passed in this connection soon.

The most important fallout of the development is increase in vehicle parking area and storage space for residents