House in Chennai

The Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), Chennai circle, and the Kancheepuram collectorate will soon conduct a joint survey to demarcate the prohibited and regulated areas of notified megalithic sites in the district. According to an amendment to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act in January 2010, all construction is banned within 100 m of ASI-protected areas and any construction or reconstruction or repair of a building with 200 m of such areas requires permission from the yet-to-be constituted National Monument Authority.

Thousands of families, unable to afford housing within Chennai city limits, built houses in the suburbs, some of them around such sites. Most of the houses were approved by many town planning bodies, including the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. Offices of the ASI, Chennai circle and the State Archaeology Department in Egmore are being flooded with enquiries from the suburbs where several such sites exist.

According to ASI sources, the Centre gave a month’s notice in June 1992 of its intention to declare prohibit construction near such areas. “Unaware of this, the local bodies kept sanctioning plan permits. Now real estate has come to a standstill, with people not being able to sell their properties or make any alterations to the existing structures,” said P Sasidaran of Zamin Pallavaram.

Offices of the ASI, Chennai circle and the State Archaeology Department in Egmore are being flooded with enquiries from the suburbs where several such sites exist. “All those contact us through e-mail, in person or over the phone are made aware of the law through an exclusive cell. A joint survey will soon be carried out along with district officials,” ASI superintending archaeologist Sathyabama Badreenath told TOI.

At least 70% of the 163 notified areas (megalithic sites) in the state are in Kancheepuram district. Some of the sites are in Kunrathur, Erumaiyur, Nandampakkam, Sirukalathur, Sikarayapuram, Kadaperi, Tiruneermalai, Ayyancheri, Kilambakkam and Nanmangalam, in Kancheepuram district. Pammathukulam, Pottur, Puzhal and Attanthangal in Tiruvallur district along with Fort St George and Muthialpet in Chennai, Old Town Wall in Tondiarpet and Sri Thiripureeswarar Temple in Madambakkam are also notified sites.

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In the last one year, Tamil Nadu has recorded more deaths. While all states have seen a dip in the number of deaths, only Tamil Nadu and Kerala have seen an increase. What is more worrying for public health experts is that number of deaths in TN is higher than the national average.

According to the Sample Registration System (SRS) released by the Registrar-General of India, the death rate went up from 7.4 per 1,000 population to 7.6/1000 population. This means, in 2009, for a population of every 10,000, two more persons died as against the deaths in 2008. On an average, nearly 4.5 lakh people die Tamil Nadu every year.

The number of deaths, 4.33 lakh in 2006, went up to 4.99 lakh in 2009.

The director of public health, Dr R T Porkai Pandian, has called for a meeting of seniors in the department next week to discuss the reasons for the increase. “We don’t have the reasons ready yet. But this trend is worrying,” he said.

Senior health department officials suspect that the increase in deaths could possibly be because of the increase in population of the elderly, who are more at risk of death. “We have managed to stabilize birth rates for almost two decades now. Our birth rates have been way below the national average since the early 1980s. So, naturally, the TN population pyramid has more senior citizens,” said health secretary V K Subburaj. That probably explains why the death rate in Kerala is as high too

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Chennai Metro Rail Ltd has awarded contract for power supply and Overhead Equipments (OHE) to Siemens AG of Germany and its Indian arm Seimens Ltd India Consortium for Rs 305 crore. The contract, awarded to the lowest bidder in an international bidding, includes design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of complete power supply systems.

Three traction sub-stations would be set up under the contract to step-down the voltage from 110 kV to 25 kV AC single phase for use for the traction purposes, according to an announcement from CMRL. CMRL has selected 25 kV AC traction power for energy efficiency and safety. This would be supplied to train through OHE to be installed along the track.

CMRL would receive electrical power from Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for a maximum demand of 60 MVA from three 110 kV sub-stations being set up by Electricity Board at Koyambedu, Alandur and Chennai Central.

The contract includes setting up of three auxiliary sub-stations at Koyambedu, Alandur and Chennai Central to step down the 110 kV to 33 kV for supply of power to stations, air-conditioning systems, tunnel ventilation systems, lighting and other utilities at the stations. The sub-stations will be of gas insulated ones for higher reliability and maintenance-friendly.

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Once a property is sold and duly registered in the name of a buyer, the sale cannot be unilaterally cancelled or annulled by the seller, the Madras high court has ruled.

Passing orders on an appeal, a full bench headed by Chief Justice M Yusuf Eqbal said: “Sale is transfer of all rights, title and interest in the properties to another person, namely the purchaser… Even if the whole price is not paid, but the document is executed and registered, the sale would be complete… Once the owner is divested himself of his ownership of the property, then he retains no control or right over the property.”

The bench, also comprising Justice P Jyothimani and Justice TS Sivagnanam, was passing orders on a writ appeal filed by Latif Estate Line India Limited. The company had registered a plot of land in Tiruvallur taluk in favour of a buyer in 1996. In 2007, the company unilaterally executed a cancellation deed on the ground that the property was never in possession of the buyer and that the latter had not paid the full sale value.

When the buyer challenged the cancellation, a single judge held that unilateral cancellation of sale deed executed by mutual consent by all parties could not be cancelled without the knowledge and consent of the other parties to the deed. The company filed a writ appeal and the bench referred it to a larger bench.

In its order, the full bench said: “It cannot be overlooked or ignored that a unilateral cancellation of a sale deed at the instance of the seller only encourages fraud and is against public policy. The seller by the unilateral execution of the cancellation deed cannot annul a registered document duly executed by him, as such an act is opposed to public policy.”

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The Chennai Corporation budget for 2011-12, presented on Tuesday, has left the property and professional tax rates untouched even while continuing with the emphasis on health and education.

The budget, presented by Chairperson of the civic body’s Committee on Taxation and Finance Radha Sambandan, has several welfare measures in the health and education sectors. One of them is a proposal to launch master health check-up consisting of 18 tests for Rs.500 at Corporation diagnostic centres in Perambur, Valluvar Kottam, EVR Salai, Saidapet and Thiruvanmiyur.

Addressing the Council, Mayor M.Subramanian said the master health check-up scheme would be of help to the poor.

The budget document said Rs.734.30 crore was to be allotted towards capital works. The total revenue is estimated to be Rs.1,943.76 crore and the total expenditure Rs.1,945.16 crore.

The collection of property tax in the current fiscal is likely to be Rs.400 crore as against nearly Rs.370 crore in 2009-10. The estimated property tax collection in 2011-2012 is Rs. 410 crore and profession tax Rs.150 crore.

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The market for commercial vehicles in India is set to see new action as Daimler, the world’s biggest truck maker by sales, unveiled an allnew brand ‘BharatBenz’ as it invest Rs 4,400 crore for a factory in Oragadam near Chennai. Daimler joins other global biggies like Sweden’s Volvo , Germany’s Man and America’s Navistar, all of whom have already set foot in the Indian market.

“We would have liked to come to the country earlier but there was a slowdown ,” Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche said here after unveiling the company’s India branding, its fifth truck brand globally. “We are very clear that we want to take a leadership position in India. We have chosen a very promising product for this market.”

Daimler had initially joined hands with the Munjals of the Hero group for its India entry and they had originally formed a joint venture in 2008. But this fell apart in April 2009 as Hero pulled out. Daimler had then purchased Hero Group’s 40% stake in the joint venture and said it will go ahead with the project independently.

Zetsche said the company does not intend to have a new equity partnership with any Indian company for its commercial vehicle business, though it may partner Tata Motors for components . The Stuttgart-based auto maker — that has been assembling its Mercedes-Benz Actros brand of heavy-duty trucks as well as buses at a factory near Pune since November 2007 — will offer trucks from six to 49 tonnes under the BharatBenz brand. These would be produced at the Oragadam factory and the first model will be introduced in June 2012. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 36,000 vehicles a year.

Stating that India has become the world’s second-largest market for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, Andreas Renschler, head of Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses, said the company expects the local truck market to double by 2020. “We will play a significant role in this leap

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A tyre of a Jet Airways plane burst today as the pilot aborted take-off suspecting problem with the breaks while taxiing to fly to Chennai.

None of the 48 passengers and four crew members on board was injured in the incident involving the airline’s Cochin-Chennai flight 9W 2730, airport sources said.

As the aircraft was taxiing for take-off at around 1230 hours, the pilot got an indication of “hot brakes” and aborted take-off. This led to a rear tyre being deflated and caused smoke to come out due to the resultant friction.

The passengers were deplaned after the incident and the runway remained closed for about 30 minutes till the aircraft was hauled to the parking bay, the sources said.

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Real estate in the South is enjoying a lot of attention given the high valuation on both the domestic and international level.

The residential and commercial properties in Bangalore and Chennai have classy designs offering amenities of international standard. The mind-boggling rise in demand for properties in Bangalore and Chennai is mainly due to the enormous migration of IT professionals to the city for employment purposes, resulting in a substantial increase in population.

Another reason for the maddening demand is investment. All the young IT professionals drawing handsome salary packages eye the residential and commercial properties in Bangalore or Chennai for  the sake of investment. Property is the safest bet after gold as far as investment is concerned. The young, energetic, profit loving and rich IT generation is aware of the tax benefits and advantages that accompany the purchase of a property, be it residential or commercial, in the long run. The simple logic applied is, a residential flat bought today is worth double the money invested.

An increasing demand for residential flats in Bangalore or Chennai has geared many well-known developers as well as the government to build more residential townships offering affordable housing options. The concept of residential flats is to utilise maximum space so that maximum number of people can be accommodated in a single building.

Multi-storeyed apartments in Bangalore solve the problem of space crunch. These residential flats are pretty cost-effective when compared to independent houses or villas. BBMP/BMRDA in Bangalore and CMDA in Chennai look after the planned development of Bangalore and tries to develop enough residential areas in the city. Real estate is moving in a steady manner with multiple residential flats in Bangalore available for both the creamy and the mid-income sections of society. Location is a price-driving factor for residential flats. If the residential flats are located on the fringes or outskirts of the city the prices generally tend to be lower.

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