Constructing new houses in Chennai would not be a smooth process if you are not prepared to spend more money!!
The Chennai residents have already been shelling out huge amounts now from their pockets for paying their property taxes, electricity charges and water taxes etc. Now, they would have to shell out more money for building new houses too.
Point is that for availing the building license and demolition clearance etc the Chennai residents would have to pay double the amount now. On Tuesday, 31st October 2023, a resolution was adopted by GCC council and it mentioned that the infrastructure and amenity charges would be doubled to Rs 820 for residential buildings and to Rs 920 for commercial buildings. This would be for all the buildings below 300 sqm.
It is worthy to note that the GCC collects this amount for all the buildings along with the CMDA development charges. The surprising piece of information is that despite the steep hike none of the ward councillors opposed.
Collection of shelter costs:
As per the resolution, it was clear that if permission was sought for the new structure of more than 3000 sq m in FSI or floor space index then shelter costs would be added additionally. If the total area exceeds more than 400 sq m then the fee would have to be calculated step wise.
The economically weaker sections would be benefited as the hike would not be applicable for houses measuring below 100 sq m.
It is learnt that the fee for clearing the demolition permission was doubled to Rs 220 per sq m for the ground floor. The fee has gone up to Rs 140 per sq m (from the current Rs 70 per sq m) for the first floor and above.