Teynampet, the zone that takes in much of the old city around Mylapore and Triplicane, holds 18 of the Greater Chennai Corporation’s 200 council wards, more than any other zone. Manali, in the industrial north, has just seven.
The tile map below puts all 15 zones in rough map order, north at the top, and shades each by its ward count. Each ward elects one councillor, so the darker tiles send more voices to the council at Ripon Buildings. Ward counts do not measure a zone’s size.
- Each square is one zone, placed roughly where it sits: Thiruvottiyur at the top right on the coast, Sholinganallur at the bottom right.
- The darker the tile, the more wards the zone has. The number at the foot of each tile is its ward count.
The core is packed with wards, the edges are not
The Wards Committees notification on the corporation’s website lists the wards in each of the 15 committees, one per zone. Six zones in a band across the middle, from Tondiarpet and Royapuram to Ambattur and Anna Nagar, have 15 wards each.
The heaviest tiles are in the centre. Teynampet (Zone 9) has wards 109 to 126 and Kodambakkam (Zone 10) has 127 to 142, so these two zones alone account for 34 wards. At the edges the counts fall: Manali has seven, Sholinganallur nine and Perungudi eleven. Together those three have 27 wards, fewer than the two core zones.
One quirk shows up in the list. Perungudi (Zone 14) takes wards 168 and 169 and then 183 to 191, while Adyar (Zone 13) sits in between with wards 170 to 182. The current zone and ward lists on the corporation’s ward page and the December 2022 Area Sabha gazette still use the same 15 zones, with Zone 1 covering wards 1 to 14.
Where the zone capital budget goes
The corporation’s Budget 2026-27 at a Glance sets out capital spending under each zone office as well as under departments. For 2026-27, Sholinganallur’s zone office has the largest allocation at Rs 46.16 crore, ahead of Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar at Rs 34.04 crore. Perungudi has the smallest, Rs 7.88 crore.
Capital budget per ward in Sholinganallur for 2026-27 (Rs 46.16 crore over 9 wards), the highest of any zone, from the GCC budget at a glance.
These zone lines are a small part of the picture. All 15 zone offices together have Rs 267.11 crore in the 2026-27 budget estimate, out of a total capital budget of Rs 2,754.05 crore.
A 20-zone map is still on paper
In March 2025 the state’s Municipal Administration Department announced a plan to split the city into 20 zones, DT Next reported. Under that proposal the largest new zone would cover 54.40 sq km and the smallest 8.10 sq km. As of August 2026 the state was still assigning ministers to all 15 zones, so the 15-zone map remains the working one.
The numbers behind the graphic
| Zone | Name | Ward numbers | Wards | Capital BE 2026-27 (Rs cr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thiruvottiyur | 1 to 14 | 14 | 14.70 |
| 2 | Manali | 15 to 21 | 7 | 14.13 |
| 3 | Madhavaram | 22 to 33 | 12 | 10.00 |
| 4 | Tondiarpet | 34 to 48 | 15 | 17.32 |
| 5 | Royapuram | 49 to 63 | 15 | 14.29 |
| 6 | Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar | 64 to 78 | 15 | 34.04 |
| 7 | Ambattur | 79 to 93 | 15 | 12.77 |
| 8 | Anna Nagar | 94 to 108 | 15 | 13.12 |
| 9 | Teynampet | 109 to 126 | 18 | 23.07 |
| 10 | Kodambakkam | 127 to 142 | 16 | 12.89 |
| 11 | Valasaravakkam | 143 to 155 | 13 | 14.77 |
| 12 | Alandur | 156 to 167 | 12 | 22.39 |
| 13 | Adyar | 170 to 182 | 13 | 9.58 |
| 14 | Perungudi | 168, 169, 183 to 191 | 11 | 7.88 |
| 15 | Sholinganallur | 192 to 200 | 9 | 46.16 |
| All zones | 1 to 200 | 200 | 267.11 |
Source: Greater Chennai Corporation, Wards Committees notification (Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, 12 September 2011); GCC Budget 2026-27 at a Glance, Capital Account Expenditure (budget estimate 2026-27). The all-zones capital total is the sum of the 15 zone lines.
About the data
The ward lists come from the corporation’s Wards Committees notification of September 2011, which set up the 200-ward, 15-zone structure. They match the zone ward ranges in the 2022 Area Sabha gazette (Zone 1) and in 2022 local body election guides by Citizen Matters for Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar and Adyar.
We planned to add each zone’s area and Census 2011 population, but could not find an official zone-level table; the Census counts wards and towns, not today’s zones. City-wide, a GCC storm water drain presentation gives 426 sq km and a 2011 Census population of 66.72 lakh for the expanded corporation.
Quick answers
Which Chennai zone has the most wards?
Teynampet (Zone 9), with 18 wards numbered 109 to 126.
Which zone has the fewest wards?
Manali (Zone 2), with seven wards numbered 15 to 21.
Is Chennai moving to 20 zones?
A 20-zone plan was announced in March 2025, but the city still works with 15 zones as of August 2026.
Information checked against official sources on 22 October 2026. Figures can be revised; confirm on the linked official pages before relying on them.
Sources
- Wards Committees notification, 15 zones and their wards (Greater Chennai Corporation)
- Formation of Area Sabhas, Chennai District Gazette Extraordinary, December 2022 (Greater Chennai Corporation)
- Ward maps and delimitation, zone list (Greater Chennai Corporation)
- Budget 2026-27 at a Glance (Greater Chennai Corporation)
- Integrated Storm Water Drain in Extended Areas, presentation (Greater Chennai Corporation, via National Green Tribunal)
- Chennai Corporation gets new map as it expands from 15 to 20 zones (DT Next, March 2025)
- Tamil Nadu assigns ministers to oversee all 15 Chennai Corporation zones (DT Next, August 2026)
- Local body polls in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Zone 6 (Citizen Matters, 2022)
- Local body polls in Adyar, Zone 13 (Citizen Matters, 2022)
