Minutes of the 59th Meeting of the Monitoring Committee Held on 02.12.2016

What the minutes cover

The Minutes of the 59th Meeting of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority Monitoring Committee, held on 2 December 2016, record decisions and pending work relating to building regularisation and safety in Chennai. The minutes were signed on 10 December 2016 by the Vice-Chairman in charge of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and Convenor of the Monitoring Committee.

The document may affect owners or occupiers of buildings whose regularisation applications were rejected, particularly multistoried buildings with unresolved fire safety issues. It also records the status of several individual regularisation applications, but does not grant regularisation to any of the listed properties.

Enforcement and fire safety

Key points recorded by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority Monitoring Committee include:

• Display boards were being erected in 2,445 rejected multistoried building regularisation cases.
• After boards are erected, enforcement action is required. The Directorate of Fire and Rescue Services monitors compliance with alternative fire safety measures, while the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Greater Chennai Corporation or relevant local authority is to take enforcement action.
• The Directorate of Fire and Rescue Services reported that notices had been issued in 594 files before the meeting and 1,478 files after the meeting. It also identified 313 repeated entries in the list.
• Experts from the National Fire Service College, Nagpur and other organisations could be invited to identify practical, technologically feasible alternative fire safety measures.
• An expert committee of fire and life safety specialists could be formed to monitor buildings that do not comply with fire safety requirements.
• The Legal Cell of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority was asked to report on action against buildings with violations in light of court orders.

Deferred property and planning matters

The Monitoring Committee deferred regularisation decisions for buildings at Pattulos Road, Ashok Nagar First Avenue and College Road, Nungambakkam. For the Pattulos Road property, clarification was sought from the Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation about a certificate on the property tax working sheet.

Proposed development regulations for school buildings exceeding 300 square metres were also deferred. The minutes list a commercial building at Khader Nawaz Khan Road for consideration, but the supplied text records no decision on that item.

Other proposals

The committee discussed proposals for multilevel car parking, a possible corpus fund using open space reservation charges and outside contributions, and community fire hydrants. Further proposals or reports were expected at a later Monitoring Committee meeting.