Minutes of the 9th Meeting of the Monitoring Committee held on 13/04/07 @ 3.00 P.M. in the Conference Hall of CMDA

What the minutes cover

The Monitoring Committee of CMDA considered Government appeal cases, applications under building regularisation schemes and proposed changes to Completion Certificate norms. The committee also reviewed subjects relating to enforcement, the Draft Master Plan II and development controls for the Aquifer Recharge area, but deferred decisions on those subjects to later meetings.

Building regularisation cases

The Monitoring Committee reviewed summaries of 187 appeal cases referred by the Government. It considered the main question to be whether the relevant construction had been completed before 28 February 1999, the cut off date for the Regularisation 1999 Scheme.

Key decisions were:

• Appeals should be rejected unless applicants provide satisfactory evidence that construction was completed before 28 February 1999.
• Regularisation cases other than 9 cases under the Regularisation 1999 Scheme were to be returned to the Government, with a suggestion that applicants receive a time limited opportunity to provide acceptable evidence.
• Evidence received by the Government could be referred to the Monitoring Committee for recommendations.
• CMDA could contact applicants under the Regularisation 1999 Scheme and give them 2 weeks to submit evidence.
• Cases with evidence were to be processed and placed before the Monitoring Committee with individual data sheets.
• CMDA was authorised to reject cases where no evidence was received after the opportunity was given.
• Rejection letters for applications under the extended regularisation schemes of 2000, 2001 and 2002 were to continue and be expedited.

Completion Certificate norms

The Monitoring Committee approved several modifications after considering stakeholder suggestions and earlier individual decisions:

• Trained and qualified fire officers need not be required at the Completion Certificate stage, but could be required at licensing.
• For a high rise building, complete sprinkler installation need not be required for the Completion Certificate. Provision for later installation was considered sufficient at that stage.
• One fire lift was required per 1200 square metres of floor area on any floor, in line with the approved plan, rather than by total building floor area.
• A solar water heating system need not be installed before the Completion Certificate, but an undertaking to provide it was required.
• Land left for road widening had to be taken over by the Corporation of Chennai before a Compliance Certificate was issued.
• Parking had to follow the approved plan. Residential buildings could receive 5% relaxation.

Matters deferred

The Monitoring Committee postponed discussion of the enforcement base paper, Draft Master Plan II and proposed development controls for the Aquifer Recharge area. The minutes therefore record no final decision on those subjects.