Conventional method of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) using the Cornell-McGuire approach requires identification of homogeneous source zones as the first step. This criterion brings along many issues and, hence, several alternative methods to hazard estimation have come up in the last few years. Methods such as zoneless or zone-free methods, modelling of earth's crust using numerical methods with finite element analysis, have been proposed. Delineating a homogeneous source zone in regions of distributed seismicity and/or diffused seismicity is rather a difficult task. In this study, the zone-free method using the adaptive kernel technique to hazard estimation is explored for regions having distributed and diffused seismicity. Chennai city is in such a region with low to moderate seismicity so it has been used as a case study. The adaptive kernel technique is statistically superior to the fixed kernel technique primarily because the bandwidth of the kernel is varied spatially depending on the clustering or sparseness of the epicentres. Although the fixed kernel technique has proven to work well in general density estimation cases, it fails to perform in the case of multimodal and long tail distributions. In such situations, the adaptive kernel technique serves the purpose and is more relevant in earthquake engineering as the activity rate probability density surface is multimodal in nature. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) obtained from all the three approaches (i.e., the Cornell-McGuire approach, fixed kernel and adaptive kernel techniques) for 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years is around 0.087 g. The uniform hazard spectra (UHS) are also provided for different structural periods. © 2011 Springer Basel AG.