New town development plans are under preparation for nine growth centres around Chennai, including Parandur where the greenfield airport is being planned, said Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday.
Inaugurating the 3-day CREDAI Fairpro 2025 real estate exhibition , Stalin said the first and second master plans for Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) were introduced during the DMK regime. Now the government is actively preparing for the third master plan. The scheme is being formulated to take forward urban development and improve the quality of life of the people with a focus on sustainable development, economic development and technological initiatives. This project is going to guide the development of the CMA for the next 20 years, he said.
Similarly, 10 regional plans are being prepared for the development of urban and rural areas across Tamil Nadu. Plans are also underway for 136 towns covering Coimbatore, Madurai, Hosur, Salem, Tiruppur, Tiruchirappalli, Vellore and Tirunelveli, he added.
The master plan for Hosur has also been released recently. The master plan for Coimbatore and Madurai will be released within next month, he said.
Tamil Nadu is a highly urbanised State with 48 per cent of its population living in urban areas. This will rise further in the coming years, and will in turn increase the demand for sustainable housing. Innovative town planning plans should be made, he said.
‘Ensure sustainable development’
“We have to decongest Chennai, create economic hubs, provide transport links, and ensure sustainable development in and around Chennai. This is the purpose,” he said.
“When I attended CREDAI Fairpro 2023, I made a commitment. In order to implement this, Single Window System and Online Building Permit System have now been implemented. The application process for site and building approval has been designed to be expeditious, transparent and grievance redressal. Under this scheme, the number of planning permissions issued for layouts and buildings has increased by 45. The time limit for approval has come down from 180 days to 64- 90 days,” he said..
The 17th edition of FAIRPRO 2025, a real estate exhibition organised by CREDAI, is featuring over 500 projects spanning 32.5 million sq ft of residential space; 0.25 million sq ft of commercial space and 325 acres of plotted development in Chennai.