Bihar land survey: Over 17.8-lakh acres of govt land identified

Bihar government identifies 31.6 lakh khesra in a special land survey, aiming for transparency and resolution of land disputes by July 2026.

Amid the ongoing special land survey in Bihar, the Bihar government has so far identified 31,60,947 government khesra involving 17,86,276 acres of land, according to the statistics provided by the department of revenue and land reforms.

Bihar land survey: Over 17.8-lakh acres of govt land identified

The government has started the process of verification of the government land, as the last survey was done over 70 years ago. It is being viewed as a major success of the department of revenue and land reforms.

The government had earlier initiated the process of locking landholding details (khata/khesra) of ownership of lakhs of acres of the government land across the state to prevent any future transaction.

Conforming the fact, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), department of revenue and land reforms, Dipak Kumar Singh said that after verification the real picture would emerge about the government land available.

“As the last survey was done decades ago, a good chunk of the land under government khesra may have been used for projects over the years. Therefore, after verification we will get to know how much land remains with the government,” he added.

The ACS said that the government projects using the land may have also not got mutation done and that would also need to be ascertained for direction to departments to get the process completed.

The government land is spread across the state and the first process of identifying the khesra has achieved desired success. During verification, the encroachment or illegal possession will also come to light for needful action, said a senior official of the department.

“Directions have been given to all the district magistrates for protection of the government land from land sharks and put all the landholding records in digital form for greater transparency,” he added.

The identification of the government land will give the state opportunity to use them for various infrastructure projects and industries. In densely populated Bihar, land availability has over the years been the Achilles heel for the government to attract investors. Besides, it will also provide the government land for distribution among the landless.

With questions raised over locking of registration of lakhs of acres of suspected government land few months ago, the ACS had said that it was being done only in the case of land that was shown with the government in the previous survey.

“Locking was being done at the district level and the district level committee looked into the objections. Proper verification of the land records will be done. If anyone has bona fide claim that will also be looked into through laid down process,” he added.

The Bihar government has already extended the deadline for completing the ongoing land survey by a year to give landholders ample time to get their records and documents right without any inconvenience.

Now the survey has been extended till July 2026. Earlier, it was July 2025. The special survey was started in 2020 and was to be completed by December 2023, but it did not make much headway. Then it again started in 2022, but due to slow pace and complications involved it has been extended several times. Since 2024 it has picked up momentum. The last cadastral survey in the state was conducted in 1911 during the British rule.

“The objective of the entire exercise to digitise the land records for the convenience of the genuine people so that disputes don’t take place - one of the key reasons behind crime the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been highlighting time and again,” said the ACS.

Resolving land disputes has been a long pending issue in Bihar and successive government did not want to touch the contentious issue, but the CM initiated it despite political risks involved in the election year.