The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority regulates developments in Chennai Metropolitan Area through issue of Planning Permission (PP) under section 49 of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act 1971.

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has delegated powers to the Local Bodies within the Chennai Metropolitan Area to issue planning permission for ordinary buildings and buildings under normally permissible categories of Industrial, Institutional and Commercial use zones and also sub-divisions & small layouts.  Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority issues planning permissions to major developments like Special buildings and Group Developments and other buildings under special sanction of the Authority by itself and for Multi-storeyed Buildings (MSB) with Government’s approval.

The ‘A’ Channel is in-charge of  processing  planning permission applications for all type of ordinary buildings up to 4 dwellings and also commercial development up to 300 Sq.mtr. of floor area and not exceeding G + 1 floors. 

The ‘B’ Channel is in-charge of processing PP applications for Special Buildings and Group developments.

The ‘C’ Channel is in charge of processing PP applications for major Industries and Institutional buildings for which powers were not delegated to local bodies.
The Layout channel is in charge of processing PP applications for major sub-divisions and layouts for which powers were not delegated to local bodies.

The MSB & IT MSB channel is in charge of processing PP applications for all types of Multi- storeyed buildings including IT and ITES. Non MSB IT or ITES buildings are also dealt in this channel