Builders to Submit a Mandatory Quarterly Progress Report of Constructions: CMDA

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority's (CMDA) close scrutiny of building plans & completion certificates has hit affordable real estate  projects in the Chennai city .

 The clampdown followed the collapse of an under - construction 11- storey building in Chennai's Moulivakkam area (Near porur) in which Aabout 60 people were killed.

“It is indeed a knee jerk reaction by the planning authority ,“ said Mr. R. Kumar of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), in Chennai. “But the CMDA has no other option when everybody points fingers at them.“

Mr. Kumar, formerly with the CMDA and now managing director of Navin Housing in Chennai, was of the view that a bottleneck has been created due to delays in approvals.

 

R. Kumar, CREDAI, Chennai

Some other builders around Chennai agree that the backlog of pending clearances for affordable houses is rapidly building up.

An official at the registration department who did not wish to be named, said there is a dip in home registrations compared with last year. The CMDA, on its part, said a panel of experts is looking into all the multi-storey building plans that have been submitted.

The panel includes an expert from the Anna University and an official from the PWD department. “The panel sits for scrutiny regularly & clears miniumum 10 building plans in each session which lasts for about 2 hours,“ a senior CMDA official.

“We are also pushing builders to submit a mandatory quarterly progress report of their construction projects,“ the CMDA officer said.

“These regulations have already been there in the Development Regulations and the town and country planning Act, but it is after the building collapse that we have started mandating total compliance.“ The other rules being pressed include submission of a signed completion certificate. Every stake-holder in the project, including the builder, the architect and the structural engineer, should sign and certify that each one of them is satisfied with the quality of construction.

“This puts the onus of the building’s stability on each of the stake holder,” the official said, adding, “It is true that all this may be causing some delay, but it is only likely to hit those who are trying to evade regulations. We will continue to follow these procedures until the Government enacts new regulations based on the one man commission’s recommendations following the building collapse.” While builders complain that scrutiny is not CMDA’s job and that the planning authority does not have the manpower to undertake such a massive operation, housing finance majors say the delay could not have come at a worse time.

“The size of Chennai’s affordable housing finance market has already dipped from a business of  Rs. 700 crore per month last year to Rs. 550 crore per month now. To add to this, builders are struggling to cope with procedural delays,” said Srinivas Acharya, MD, Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance.

He said that builders have slowed down on further addition and are waiting for the ready-to-occupy flats to be sold first. “When the market picks up, it will get sold out quickly. In the past 2 years, people have had the luxury of buying ready made flats. This option made flats. This option may not be available in the future once the buying starts,“ he added.

“There is a need to bring in regulations that are preventive in nature. Officials need to ensure that only well qualified engineers and architects are allowed to work on building projects. Not only will this ensure that the quali “When the market picks up, it will get sold out quickly. In the last two years, people have had the luxury of buying readymade flats. This option may not be available in the future once the buying starts,” he added.

“There is a need to bring in regulations that are preventive in nature. Officials need to ensure that only well qualified engineers and architects are allowed to work on building projects. Not only will this ensure that the quality of buildings are good but it will also provide job opportunities for qualified engineers,” Mr. Acharya added.

Src: ET

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