Greater Chennai

The Greater Chennai Metropolitan Area, or simply the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), is the third-most populous metropolitan area in India, the 22nd-most in Asia, and the 40th-most in the world. The CMA consists of the core city of Chennai, which is coterminous with the Chennai district, and its suburbs in Kanchipuram (except Uthiramerur taluk), Chengalpattu (except Madurantakam and Cheyyur taluks), Thiruvallur (except Pallipattu, RK Pet and parts of Tiruttani taluks), and Ranipet (parts of Arakkonam taluk) districts. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is the nodal agency that handles town planning and development within the metro area. Since 1974, an area encompassing around the city has been designated as the CMA and the CMDA has been designated as the authority to plan the growth of the city and the area around it. But in October 2022 the area of CMA was expanded five-fold to .

Economy

Recent estimates of the economy of the Chennai metropolitan area (which includes the industrial zones) is over US$200 billion ( PPP GDP), making it the third most productive metro area of India, and the third highest by GDP per capita. Previously, the metropolitan area didn't include the nearby industrial zones of Siruseri, Oragadam, and Sriperumbudur, due to which the economy of these regions didn't get included in the economy of Chennai. Now, post expansion of the Chennai metropolitan area in 2022, these regions are included, and the GDP of Chennai which was previously around US$86 billion has increased drastically to over US$200 billion.

Composition

The CMA is a metropolitan area in Tamil Nadu state, consisting of the state capital Chennai (previously known as Madras) and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 20 years, it consists of 2 municipal corporations, 7 municipalities and 14 smaller town councils. The entire area is overseen by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), a Tamil Nadu State Government organisation in charge of town planning, development, transportation and housing in the region. The CMDA was formed to address the challenges in planning and development of integrated infrastructure for the metropolitan region. The areas outside Greater Chennai Corporation ( Chennai District) like Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur have lacked organised development.

The CMA comprises the city of Chennai and its neighbourhood corporations of Avadi and Tambaram, 8 municipalities, 11 town panchayats and 179 village panchayats in 10 panchayat unions. The CMA has an area of 1,189 km². It includes the whole of the Chennai District, along with the Ambattur, Gummidipoondi, Madhavaram, Ponneri, Poonamallee and Tiruvallur taluks of the Tiruvallur District, Sriperumbudur and Kundrathur taluks of the Kancheepuram District, Pallavaram, Vandalur and Tambaram taluks of the Chengalpattu district.

The CMA falls in three Districts of the Tamil Nadu State viz. Chennai District, part of Thiruvallur District, part of Chengalpattu District and part of Kancheepuram District. The extent of the Chennai District (covered in Chennai Municipal Corporation area) is 426 km² and comprises 55 revenue villages in 10 Taluks Chengalpattu district fall in the metropolitan area.

CMA region has about 3,000 water bodies, most of which have been encroached upon by real estate dealers and small communities.

The Chennai metropolitan area is set to be expanded further, incorporating the entire districts of Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, and the Kanchipuram district">Kancheepuram, and the Arakkonam taluk, Nemili">Nemili Taluk of the Ranipet district">Arakkonam taluk">Kanchipuram district">Kancheepuram, and the Arakkonam taluk, Nemili">Nemili Taluk of the Ranipet district. In future it may expand further. Plans to expand Chennai Metropolitan Area seven folds from existing 1,189 km² to 8,878 km² appears to be scaled down in view of opposition from farmers in giving up their agricultural lands. The government is looking at maximum utilization of the available spaces in the core city and urbanized pockets in the suburbs for residential development. Only area well connected with the available rail infrastructure will be included in the expansion plan of CMA. The extent of expansion will be scaled down from 8,878 km² to 3,000–4,000 km².

Nodal agencies

Municipal corporations

# Greater Chennai Corporation
#Avadi Municipal Corporation
#Kanchipuram Municipal Corporation
#Tambaram Municipal Corporation

Municipalities

#Guduvancheri
#Mangadu
# Kundrathur
# Poonamallee
#Thiruverkadu
# Thiruninravur
# Tiruvallur
# Tiruttani
# Maraimalai Nagar
# Chengalpattu
# Ponneri
# Arakkonam

Districts

# Chennai (Complete)
# Chengalpattu (Except Madurantakam and Cheyyur taluks)
#Kanchipuram (Except Uthiramerur taluk)
# Tiruvallur (Except Pallipattu, RK Pet & parts of Tiruttani taluks)
# Ranipet (Parts of Arakkonam taluks)

Taluks

The CMDA has proposed to trifurcate the CMA into Central, North and South.

CMA Central

The former jurisdiction of CMA covering 1,189 sqkm would be juridiction the CMA Central which spread over the below areas:

In Chennai district
# Alandur
# Ambattur
# Aminjikarai
# Ayanavaram
# Egmore
# Guindy
# Madhavaram
# Maduravoyal
# Mambalam
# Mylapore
# Perambur
# Purasawalkam
# Sholinganallur
# Thiruvottiyur
# Tondiarpet
#Velachery

In Chengalpattu district
#Pallavaram
# Tambaram
# Vandalur (partial)

In Kanchipuram district
# Kundrathur (partial)

In Tiruvallur district
# Avadi
# Poonamallee (partial)
# Ponneri (partial)

CMA North

The proposed CMA North will cover an area of 2,908 sqkm which spread over the below areas:

In Tiruvallur district
#Gummidipoondi
# Poonamallee (partial)
# Ponneri (partial)
# Tiruvallur
# Tiruttani (partial)
# Uthukottai

In Kanchipuram district
#Sriperumbudur

In Ranipet district
# Arakkonam (partial)

CMA South

The proposed CMA South will cover an area of 1,809 sqkm which spread over the below areas:

In Chengalpattu district
# Chengalpattu
#Tirukalukundram
# Thiruporur
# Vandalur (partial)

In Kanchipuram district
# Kundrathur (partial)
#Kanchipuram
# Walajabad

Expansion

The CMDA regulates developments in the Chennai metropolitan area through the issuance of planning permission under section 49 of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act 1971.

The first plans to expand the CMA were proposed by the CMDA in 2011. The need for expansion arose as several nearby settlements such as Sriperumbudur, Kelambakkam, Tiruvallur and Maraimalai Nagar had been undergoing rapid development and had to be incorporated under the CMDA planning strategy. Also, the planning bodies of other metropolises in India such as Bengaluru, New Delhi and Hyderabad had already redefined their respective metropolitan regions to include much larger areas and corresponding regional planning was being done. The CMA, however, has not been altered since it was first defined in 1974. The area was limited to which is among the smallest in the country.

In July 2012, the CMDA suggested two options to the Government of Tamil Nadu for expanding the area:
*The first option includes the whole of the Chennai district, Madhavaram, Ambattur, Poonamallee, Ponneri, Gummidipoondi, Uthukottai, and Thiruvallur taluks of the Tiruvallur district, and Alandur, Pallavaram, Tambaram, Sholinganallur, Chengalpattu, Thiruporur, and Sriperumbudur taluks of the Kancheepuram district extending up to .
* The second option includes the whole of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts and the Arakkonam taluk of Ranipet district and extends to a total of .

Chief planners of the CMDA have suggested that the second option is more feasible. Another planning model, similar to the National Capital Region was also examined by the CMDA. In order to plan for balanced regional development, developing a larger road network, implementing an integrated transport plan and identifying a Chennai Mega Region have become necessary.

On 3 July 2017, the Government of Tamil Nadu's minister for housing and urban development, Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan announced its intention to expand the CMA to . The extension will cover all of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts and Arakkonam taluk of Ranipet district, as proposed in July 2012. Having completed a feasibility study, a "strategic regional plan" was now required, and completion of the whole process was expected by July 2018.

On 22 January 2018 the Government of Tamil Nadu issued order G.O. (Ms) No.13 to "declare the intention to include additional areas in the Chennai Metropolitan Planning Area" under section 2, clause (23-a) of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 (Tamil Nadu Act 35 of 1972). The additional areas to be included were as proposed by the CMDA in 2017. Under Tamil Nadu Act 35 the Tamil Nadu government is required to allow reasonable opportunity (two months according to §10.3) for inhabitants, local authorities and institutions in the area to comment upon or object to such an expansion proposals.
Although less than 100 objections to the expansion plans were received, a public interest litigation action was launched at the Madras High Court in March 2018.

In October 2022 the area of CMA was expanded five-fold to making it 4th largest Metropolitan city.

Notes

See also

* Mumbai metropolitan area
* Delhi metropolitan area
* Kolkata metropolitan area
* List of metropolitan areas in Asia by population
* List of metropolitan areas in India
* List of million-plus urban agglomerations in India
* List of districts in Tamil Nadu by Human Development Index
* List of urban agglomerations in Tamil Nadu

References

External links

Chennai metropolitan area mapCDMA plan

{{coord missing, Tamil Nadu

Metropolitan areas of Tamil Nadu
Geography of Chennai