Urban News

The places include Tiruchy, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Thoothkudi, Salem, Erode, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Vellore and suburban areas like Gummidipondi, Chengalpattu and Mamallapuram falling in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts.

The decision to implement uniform development regulations in these planning areas comes in the wake of Chief Secretary KS Sripathi emphasizing the need for issuing uniform guidelines for rural areas that abut urban areas.

Orders have already been issued to implement the provisions of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority’s (CMDA) First Master Plan in planning areas like Tiruchy, Salem and Coimbatore under the purview of director of town and country planning.

“The development regulations framed by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority are scientifically driven and suit the present trend of developments and duly meet other elements in the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning,” a government press release said.

On the applicability of the guidelines to Vellore and Tirupur, the State government said it would permit institutions like Christian Medical College, Vellore to expand infrastructure to meet the needs of sick people.The regulations include provisions for areas where multi-storeyed buildings are permissible and correlating the height of multi-storeyed buildings with the width of the abutting road. If a site that is to be developed is bigger than 10,000 sq metres, 10 per cent of the area must be earmarked for providing houses for lower income groups and economically weaker sections.

The government has constituted an empowered committee consisting of secretary, housing and development as chairman, secretary municipal administration and water supply department and member secretary of the CMDA as members, and director of Town and Country Planning as convenor to look into the ‘demonstrable hardships’ and relax the planning parameters, the press release stated.