The Hindu        06.11.2014 

George Town buildings flout rules

A PIL was filed earlier, seeking a direction on illegal constructions in
the locality in order to prevent fire accidents—Photo: R. Ragu

: All buildings in George Town have been found in
violation of development regulations, with most of the deviations found
on higher floors.

Following a direction from the
Madras High Court to the Chennai Corporation and Chennai Metropolitan
Development Authority (CMDA) to file a report on unauthorised
constructions in George Town, the civic body has done a preliminary
screening of the buildings. This central business district has more than
14,000 buildings with around 25,000 property tax assessees.

The
Corporation is likely to ask the owners of over 11,000 of the buildings
in the area to submit the original building plan approved earlier. The
CMDA is also likely to direct owners of around 3,000 structures,
including multi-storeyed buildings, to produce the original plan
approval.

The land use in George Town primarily
comprises residential and mixed-residential zones. It is classified as a
‘continuous building area’, permitting structures of ground-plus-one
floor, with a floor space index of 1.5.

Many of the
owners have been found to have obtained permission for a building with
ground-plus-one floor, but constructed multi-storeyed buildings. A
number of the structures have been constructed without obtaining
building approval from the civic body.

A few months
ago, social activist K.R. Ramaswamy alias ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy had filed a
public interest litigation in the Madras High Court, seeking a
direction to authorities with regard to illegal constructions in the
locality in order to prevent fire accidents.

In his
petition, Mr. Ramaswamy alleged ‘deliberate negligence’ on the part of
the Corporation, traffic police, fire service and CMDA in preventing
illegal structures from coming up.

Disaster
management expert N. Mathavan said most of the roads are very narrow.
“Fire tenders cannot reach a building in the event of a disaster.
Vulnerability mapping for disaster management should be done in the
area,” he said.

A former urban planning expert with
CMDA, however, clarified that a question of violation would arise “only
if construction is done newly”.