E-Paper
GMADA extends land acquisition deadline for Eco City-3
Landowners show little interest in land pooling scheme even as GMADA struggles with fund crunch
The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has extended the process to acquire land for its Urban Estate Eco City-3 project at New Chandigarh, Mullanpur, after facing a funds crunch and getting a poor response from landowners to its land pooling scheme.
The project will have residential, commercial and institutional properties.
Even as 118 land owners out of 450 in the area opted for the scheme, GMADA was in the process of acquiring 320 acres in the six villages of Rajgarh, Takipur, Kartarpur, Kansala and Hoshiarpur, which was expected to be completed by March 12 this year after the three-month extension.
Farmers as per the land pooling policy were offered housing and commercial sites in lieu of their land. For example, in case of acquisition of eight kanal land, the farmer had two options: To choose a 1,000 sq yard developed residential site with a 121 sq yard developed SCO site or a 500 sq yard residential site with a 300 sq yard SCO site.
“The process has been extended from December 19, 2019, to March 12, 2020, due to poor response to land pooling even though we want to develop the township mostly through this scheme. Also, the financial position of GMADA is not very good,” said a senior GMADA official on condition of anonymity.
‘UNPROFITABLE SCHEME’
Landowners felt the scheme was unprofitable as they did not expect their properties to attract buyers because of the real estate market slump. Many of them were also cautious of investing with GMADA as it had yet to develop Eco City -2, for which the same scheme had been rolled out earlier, said Manjit Singh, a landowner in Takipur. “Most of the small farmers are illiterate and want compensation in cash, which the authorities were not willing to provide,” he said.
In November last year, GMADA had approved the rates of acquisition of 320 acres in five villages, with compensation for farmers fixed between ₹1.8 crore and ₹ 2.4 crore per acre, depending on the village.
DELAYED PROJECT
Announced in 2016, the Urban Estate Eco City-3 project was delayed as farmers did not show any interest. Finally, a fresh notification was issued in December last year.
Land acquisition was taking place under the Land Pooling Policy, 2013.
GMADA had also initiated the process of acquiring 737 acres for its other township, Aerotropolis, spread over 5,400 acre, an expansion of GMADA’s Aerocity near Chandigarh International Airport.
Other townships under GMADA are Knowledge City and IT City, also close to the airport, and Eco City-1 and 2, Edu City and Medi City, all in New Chandigarh.
