Urban News

The Hindu        16.12.2010

Building approvals to be cleared soon: official

Coimbatore: Applications from Coimbatore that were pending with the Directorate of Town and Country Planning for building or layout approval would be cleared in a couple of months, according to Pankaj Kumar Bansal, Director of Town and Country Planning.

He told The Hindu here on Wednesday that about one-third of applications pending for approval in the State were from Coimbatore.

He attributed the reason to problems with communication with the applicants in order to get the required documents.

Now, letters and telegrams were sent to the applicants seeking additional details and the approvals were being given at the earliest after getting the details.

Special meetings were held here regularly to redress the grievances and the number of applications was coming down.

About 50 applications were received at a special grievance meeting organised here today compared to nearly 80 applications received during the previous meeting. Mr. Bansal said during the last six months, the number of pending approvals as well as the approval time had been reduced.

The number of applications received for approval had gone up nearly six times.

The local body is empowered to accord approval for residences up to 4,000 sq ft. For schools and industries and residences of 4,000 sq ft to 15,000 sq ft, the approval has to be given by the Local Planning Authority.

For residences of more than 15,000 sq ft the approval is given by the DTCP.

The Hindu       16.12.2010

1,000 architecture students to document heritage buildings

Students have been asked to collect all details of the structures. In picture the Triplicane Police Station building.

CHENNAI: A total of 1,000 students of architecture from 10 colleges will start documentation of heritage buildings and precincts in the Chennai Metropolitan Area shortly.

The students, in groups of four, will visit all localities in the area to assess and evaluate structures and precincts with historic, cultural, architectural and archaeological value, according to Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) Vice-Chairperson Susan Mathew.

The CMDA would pay Rs.250 a day to each of the students undertaking documentation. The documents would be submitted to the CMDA for preparing a comprehensive list of the heritage buildings after proper verification.

“The reason for using the students for the documentation is that they will not have any bias,” said A.N. Sachithanandan, president of the Institute of Town Planners India.

Initially, the assessment would be done in the Chennai Corporation limits. The city has been divided into 10 divisions, including George Town, Triplicane, Purasawalkam and Mylapore, for the documentation.

The assessment would be made according to the criterion for listing the heritage buildings and precincts.

The students have been asked to look for aspects such as the date and period of construction for determining the historic significance of a building. They would take photographs of each of the structures and collect details from records available with owners of the heritage buildings, said an official of CMDA.

Social, economic or political trends exhibited by the building, events or persons associated with the building, artistic merits such as design, style and community context of the building would be recorded by the students.