The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : There seems to be nothing constructive about it

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Tuesday, Aug 21, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

There seems to be nothing constructive about it

City Bureau

No matter how many rules and plans are in place, the city seems to thrive on its ability to flout building norms

— Photo: S. S. Kumar

Mad rush: T. Nagar is a nightmare for both motorists and pedestrians.

CHENNAI: There is more to illegal construction than mere violation of norms. It puts strain on various fronts for the city and Chennai is no exception to this menace.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority in 2000 declared that half of the buildings in the city were illegal. Considering the pressure on land and the sharp increase in the realty prices over the years, this number must have swelled manifold.

The consequences of unauthorised constructions are felt everyday. Building area has exceeded permissible limits resulting in congestion and overcrowding of neighbourhoods. Coupled with the increase in the number of vehicles, the roads are unable to take more traffic than they could.

And it is not just about the motoring space as much as about the space for parking vehicles. Whenever buildings do not provide sufficient parking space, vehicles spill onto the road and choke it further.

Within the apartments, insufficient vehicle parking space has been a major factor for conflicts amongst the residents. Waterbodies and open spaces are encroached upon. When big shops without adequate parking facilities are located in the middle of residential colonies, residents are hassled by the incessant traffic and haphazard parking. In this regard, however, Chennai is no different from Delhi, but somehow the authorities here seem to be taking a lenient view of the issue.

Violations galore

No matter how many rules and plans are in place, the city seems to thrive on its ability to violate the rules. The extent and degree of violation are directly proportional to the economic advantages.

For instance, in T.Nagar, every 100 square feet of unauthorised commercial space fetches about Rs.7,000 to 8,000 as monthly rent and has a sale value of anything between Rs. 6 lakh to 10 lakh.

Space is an essential input to the large volume of business transacted here. A quick survey of select streets in T.Nagar shows that most of the multi-storied buildings have violated one rule or the other. The same applies to special buildings. CMDA sources confirm this. Little wonder that T. Nagar remains one of the chaotic places in Chennai. Every traffic arrangement has failed and every possible planning idea is mocked at.

How did so many unauthorised buildings manage to come about? Would not it have been easier to stop them at the beginning stage? Not only the culture of violation but also the alleged poor enforcement mechanism of the CMDA and Chennai Corporation is a reason for this. The CMDA established its enforcement cell in 1986. It has four enforcement divisions and about 40 officials are managing the 1,189 sq km of the Chennai Metropolitan area. The infrastructure to regulate the city is inadequate.

The CMDA has often said that it cannot proceed with the demolition because many of the erring builders go to court and obtain stay. The State Government, in 2002, directed that power connections to buildings be given only to those with completion certificates. Subsequently, even water or sewer connections were given only after no-objection certificate was issued. However this practice was discontinued in 2005. Along with this went another deterrent.

Connivance of officials too cannot be ruled out. Recently, the Chennai Corporation suspended two junior engineers (of wards 126 and 127) and an assistant executive engineer (unit 22-A) for failure to enforce planning laws for some commercial buildings in T. Nagar. The buildings were allegedly constructed in blatant violation of laws with no thought for setback space or parking.

In the case of a textile showroom on Usman Road, the floor space index value was found to be 9 although the norm is 1.5. At least four other buildings on the same road have an equally high FSI.

Green Channel

The CMDA had announced a ‘Green Channel’ for speedy sanction of permission for ordinary residential buildings and commercial buildings. “We receive about 20 to 25 applications a year through the Green Channel as opposed to 4 or 5 daily through the regular means. Builders tend to submit plans with violations such as additional FSI to pump up profits. These cannot be admitted through the Green Channel,” said a senior planner in the CMDA.

The extent of violation is severe in the suburbs and especially outside the Chennai Metropolitan Area. Local bodies with poor or no capacity and poor infrastructure have been issuing building layout permission without much regard for rules. A flurry of building activities in the suburbs will, sooner or later, make the situation worse for the expanding Chennai.

Builders repeatedly want distinction to be made between violations and deviations. Some demand that violations of need and violations of greed be dealt with separately. The Builders Association of India, southern chapter, in 2002, argued that only buildings where the amount of violations exceeds 25 per cent must be considered for severe action. To differentiate between violation and deviation could be as difficult as hair-splitting.

“Enforcement of rules is the problem,” said K. Ramadoss, member of Fifth Pillar, Exnora International. The builders may blame it on rising land costs and cumbersome rules, but every deviation subverts city planning objectives. They build, sell and leave the project. But it is the residents, whose quality of life is compromised, safety is in jeopardy and everyday comfort is lost.

(With inputs from A. Srivathsan, Kannal Achuthan and J. Malarvizhi)

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