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Proliferating layout violations

It hardly looked like a real estate office. On the desktop were placards informing the days and time of fortune telling. Pictures, big and small, on the walls portrayed the ritual background of the proprietor. Across the table, the high back seat had a white silk dhoti spread over it. The humming air-conditioner along with the strong fragrance of flowers might give it an unlikely business ambience, but plots worth lakhs of rupees are sold in this Mugappair office regularly .

If you show any kind of interest to buy a plot, you will get a free ride on a bumpy mud road to an empty site. At the site, the salesperson’s drawing shows a neatly organised layout of 15 plots fronting a 20 feet road. He quickly convinces you that the wilderness one sees is a passing thing and what you are looking at is actually a gold mine. The conversation is smooth and assuring till you ask whether the layout is approved and the documents are in place.

The fact slowly emerges. The layout is not approved as you see it in the drawing. Instead, it has been divided into three parcels and separately approved. It has approval as a plot subdivision and not as a layout. The realtor assures you that the local body has approved it and there will be no problem. Any delay, you may lose the plot, he cautions to your discomfort. If you are gullible you may buy this story, only to know later that the layout is unapproved. The trouble begins from here.

In another case, everything looked perfect. The layout of plots was impressive; the title deed was clear and the layout was duly approved. Skeletons started to emerge when it was found that a part of the layout did not belong to the realtor. He had forged the documents of the adjacent land and included it in his layout. That helped him meet the rules and all the plots were sold. The truth surfaced when the adjacent landowner visited the site only to see his land apportioned and sold by someone else. In this case, the original landowner was influential and managed to convene a meeting with the realtor in the authority’s office and got the layout cancelled. But those who had bought the plots were in trouble. There are many such stories. In one case, the Government land was plotted and sold and in another the mandatory playground space was plotted and sold. The list of frauds is unending.

The sale of plots is often fraught with issues of non-compliance with rules. It is not just gullible buyers, the list includes even wilful buyers. Many think that they can either manage the approval later or wait for the unapproved layouts to be predictably regularised by the Government. Unapproved layouts, on an average, cost less by 20 to 30 per cent compared to the approved layout (this figure varies from place to place). Parties, seller and buyer, make good gains in this deal. What suffers in the process is the organised development of the city.

Rules make due demands on road widths, mandate a reservation of common spaces such as playgrounds and ensure that the individual plots have reasonable dimensions. The errant realtors, typically, tend to cut corners either by reducing the mandatory width of the roads or by avoiding the reservation of common open areas. They violate these rules in order to maximise the number of plots and thus the profits.

Within the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), the powers to approve the layout, which has up to eight plots or layouts plotted in area less than five grounds are delegated to the local bodies. The local bodies in turn approve them based on the CMDA rules. The realtors tend to divide their property into parcels of less than five grounds so that they can keep the layout within the purview of the local body. It is often observed that the local bodies are casual in their observation of rules and hardly have any enforcement mechanism. Things are worse in areas outside the CMA limits.

Villages and municipalities outside the CMA have different procedures. The rules vary for plots which fall under municipal and urban areas and those which come under village panchayats. The road width requirement and the reservation of common area are spelt in detail. Powers are delegated to the local bodies to approve layouts up to five acres. In the case of layouts having more than five acres, the papers should be routed to the Local Planning Authority or the Regional Deputy Director of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP). Though local bodies have the authority to give approval for the layouts for less than five acres, they must obtain the necessary concurrence from the Member Secretary of the LPA or the Regional Deputy Director of the DTCP. For plots that abut the National Highway, State highway and bypass, the local body must get the concurrence from the highways authorities. Many erring layouts only get local body approval and not the other mandatory concurrences.

K.Rajaraman, Commissioner, DTCP, feels that buyers must insist on proper approvals and demand to see the copy of approved drawing. If the seller is reluctant, he suggests that the buyers can request for a copy either at the local body office or at the local planning authority. Constructions in unapproved layouts will later lead to problems in obtaining building approval because of insufficient road widths and improper land use locations, he cautions. Mr. Rajaraman says that the buyers should not compromise on the quality of life a properly approved layout may ensure. Officials at CMDA caution that it would be difficult to get public utilities like black topping of roads and street light facilities in unapproved layouts.

Plotted layout allows for the incremental growth of the city and is a form of private involvement in city development. Elaborate layout rules are in place to ensure that such piecemeal growth is eventually organised. When a large area develops following these rules a proper network of roads is bound to form and a fair distribution of common areas can be ensured.

However, on ground, violations of layout rules are rampant and more so in the recent times. Managing Chennai’s growth will be hampered as the suburbs grow unchecked without any possibility for a comprehensive plan. Sooner or later, the State will find it difficult to form proper road networks. When it attempts to do so in future, it would face acquisition hurdles. Inefficient road pattern and unsustainable spread will cost the city dear. To make things worse, the recent Government order has lifted the restriction on the registration of housing sites on unapproved layouts. C.H.Gopinatha Rao, former National President, Institute of Valuers, thinks that such indiscriminate revocation emboldens the violators. Unless the public abide by the rules there cannot be any organised development in the city, he says. Poor enforcement mechanism add to the woes. What purpose will large master plans serve if on ground we cannot ensure organised development, many ask.

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