E-Paper
Ghaziabad: GDA initiates land audit to identify vacant land in housing schemes
GDA has identified about 5,200 square metres (sqm) of vacant residential land and also two commercial plots in Vaishali. Reselling this land will fetch GDA a revenue of ₹314 crore for residential plots and about ₹18 crore for commercial plots
The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has initiated a land audit to identify plots lying vacant in housing schemes and has come across certain such properties that it now intends to develop for housing and commercial activities, said authority officials.
They said that the audit started in December 2024 and s presently ongoing in Indirapuram and Vaishali and will be extended to other areas as well.
“The audit is currently going on in Vaishali and Indirapuram. We found about 5,200 square metres (sqm) of vacant residential land and also two commercial plots in Vaishali. We have planned to develop these vacant plots into residential and commercial plots. We estimate that the move will fetch us a revenue of ₹314 crore for residential plots and about ₹18 crore for commercial plots,” said Rudresh Shukla, media spokesperson, GDA.
The land audit is being carried out in schemes that are not fully saturated or those that have land available for allotment against the original map layout of the scheme, said officials.
The GDA’s engineering department is carrying out the ground-level inspections and the planning/property department is cross checking the vacant land against the original map layout of the scheme.
GDA officials said upon inspection, they found a vacant plot that was earlier used as an electrical store, covering an area of about 5200 square metres in Vaishali’s Sector 3.
Likewise, they also identified two commercial plots measuring about 350sqm each in Sector 4.
“We have planned that the 5200sqm of identified land will be converted into 16 residential plots. *This vacant piece of land is near a cremation ground, and hence, no buyer has come forward to purchase high-rise plots (group housing). That is why we are considering plotted development with fewer number of storeys,” Shukla said.
“The two commercial plots will also be used similarly for commercial development. The idea is to identify all such vacant properties in GDA schemes and resell them to fetch additional revenue. Likewise, we have about 30,000sqm of residential land in Indirapuram that was meant for group housing, and it is lying unsold. The authority has planned to develop residential plots instead. This is expected to fetch us about ₹400 crore,” Shukla said.
The officials said that the incoming funds will also be used to pay ₹185 crore that it owes the Ghaziabad municipal corporation for the takeover of Indirapuram sector.
Earlier in September 2024, the two agencies had entered into an agreement for the handover of Indirapuram to the corporation, and GDA had agreed to pay ₹185 crore for the upgrade of civic infrastructure.
