Variation to the approved Second Master Plan for the Chennai Metropolitan Area, 2026 under Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act

What the variation changes

The Variation to the approved Second Master Plan for the Chennai Metropolitan Area, 2026 inserts a new development regulation on Special Transferable Development Rights and adds Annexure XXVII. The scheme applies where eligible slum households on land owned by government departments or agencies are resettled so that the land can be restored, used for infrastructure or made available for another public purpose.

Who is affected

The Special Transferable Development Rights scheme concerns:

• Slum dwellers identified by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board as eligible for alternate accommodation.
• Private developers selected through bidding to construct alternate accommodation.
• The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, which coordinates the resettlement and may itself receive development rights where it directly provides accommodation.
• Owners and developers seeking to use Special Transferable Development Rights within the Chennai Metropolitan Area.

The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board must ensure that a majority of eligible households are willing to join the scheme and move to the identified location or locations.

Key provisions

• Special Transferable Development Rights may be awarded for 30 square metres of floor area per resettled slum household.
• The floor space index credit is calculated using 30 square metres, a factor of 1.5 and the ratio between the guideline value of the emanating site and the receiving site.
• A private developer receives the final certificate only after completed alternate accommodation meeting prescribed standards is handed to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board. Ownership of the completed tenements must be conveyed by registered sale deed.
• A certificate holder may use or transfer the credit only after obtaining the required clearance and endorsement from the Member Secretary, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.
• Planning permission applications using the credit must include a copy of the valid certificate.
• Use may be spread across one or more vacant or developed sites, but the receiving plot cannot exceed 0.5 floor space index above the normally permitted level.
• Credit cannot be used in Coastal Regulation Zone areas, aquifer recharge areas, Red Hills Catchment Area, George Town and Continuous Building Area, or other areas later notified by the Government.
• Certificates are initially valid for five years and may be renewed for another five years, subject to a revalidation fee prescribed and notified by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.
• Lost certificates are not replaced, and certificates obtained through misrepresentation may be cancelled.