Chennai Getting Bigger Is Good News For Suburban Real Estate
Chennai has now become India's biggest metropolitan city. Recently, the city has been expanded to over 426 square kilometre (sq km) comprising 122 revenue villages. The district that earlier spanned 178 sq km is now more than double in size with its boundaries corresponding to that of the Greater Chennai Corporation.
PropGuide on how this development will change the realty map of Chennai:
As the surface area lying under the jurisdiction of Chennai increases, 67 villages from Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts have been added to the earlier number of 55, taking the total to 122. These villages will be divided into three zones – North, Central and South Chennai.
North zone: Areas, including Madhavaram, Perambur, Purasawalkam, Tiruvottiyur and Tondiarpet will fall under the north zone. There are 32 villages in this zone and the head revenue office will be located at Tondiarpet.
Central zone: Areas such as Ambattur, Aminjikarai, Ayanavaram, Egmore, Maduravoyal, and Mambalam will be a part of the Central zone and would comprise 47 revenue villages.
South zone: Areas such as Alandur, Guindy, Mylapore, Sholinganallur and Velachery will fall under the South zone. The region will have 43 revenue villages.
According to an official release, the newly merged villages will now have better access to citizen services, better medical facilities, more job opportunities, education institutions, better disaster management and more revenue. The extended suburbs will also have access to efficient management of law and order, social security schemes and land-related programmes and compensation. The maps of these areas have been digitised and available on online portal eservices.tn.gov.in
Also, the merger would end the apathy of thousands of residents in these areas as earlier they remained in the jurisdiction of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, leaving residents with almost no access to government records or avail of its revenue services or other related schemes.
Impact on real estate
The expansion of Chennai city is a good news for the surburban real estate market as it would be easier for homebuyers to apply for deeds, survey maps and access land records at the collector office. Moreover, with its inclusion within city corporation area, the condition of urban infrastructure will improve, planning and implementation will become better.
The expansion would also boost affordable housing segment. These areas being a part of Chennai metropolitan landscape would enjoy better public transport and housing in the time to come, ensuring an attractive affordable housing hub for the low and middle-income segment. Currently, the property market in these areas is unregularised and have limited scope for private builders as the infrastructure lacks urban feel.