Housing and Urban Development Department 2023

What the publication covers

The Government of Tamil Nadu Housing and Urban Development Department presents an overview of the agencies under its administrative control, their responsibilities, major initiatives and the Budget Estimate for 2023-2024. The publication covers the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Tamil Nadu Housing Board, cooperative housing societies, Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority and other housing and planning bodies.

Planning and land development

The Directorate of Town and Country Planning implements the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971. Its responsibilities include preparing, updating and enforcing Master Plans and Detailed Development Plans to regulate land use and support orderly development.

Key planning initiatives listed in the publication include:

• Expansion of areas covered by the existing 123 master plans because urbanisation in core towns is affecting fringe areas.
• Notification of new areas for preparation of 12 new master plans.
• Orders for preparing master plans for 57 towns with populations between 50,000 and 99,999, covering 7,292.34 square kilometres.
• Administrative approval to delegate additional powers to Town Planning District Officers, intended to make building plan approvals easier to obtain.
• Development of a Single Window Portal for layout, building and change of land use applications involving the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and urban local bodies.
• Online layout applications operating from 24 June 2022, and building and land use reclassification modules operating from 1 September 2022.
• Amendment of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 to provide statutory support for land pooling, which combines private and public land and reorganises irregular parcels for comprehensive development.

Relevance to buyers and owners

Property buyers, landowners, builders and professionals may be affected where a site falls within a Master Plan or Detailed Development Plan, or where layout approval, building approval or land use reclassification is required. The publication explains the administrative direction of these services, but it does not identify the planning classification or approval status of any individual property.

Housing measures

The Tamil Nadu Housing Board provides residential plots, area development plots, individual houses, tenements and commercial plots. The publication also reports an Interest Waiver Scheme intended to help beneficiary allottees who missed monthly instalments obtain sale deeds, and describes cooperative housing societies that develop layouts, sell affordable plots and provide housing finance to members.