Mumbai civic body to make TDR trading and record of ownership of certificates online

TDRs are issued as compensation to land owners, if government takes possession of the land to develop a public utility service on it

In an effort to bring ease and transparency into the trading of Transferable Development Rights (TDR), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon issue TDR certificates and their utilisation receipt online. It will be about four months before the online service becomes operational, according to an official from the Development Plan (DP) department, who is in charge of making the process of issuing TDR online.

Developers have welcomed the BMC’s move to make TDR trading online. (HT FILE)

In February, BMC floated tenders to hire a contractor to develop the software that will take the TDR process online. A senior civic official said, “The scope of this process includes application for TDR certificates online, issuance of certificates, transfer, sale, and utilisation of the certificate. The whole process was earlier done physically, but will be taken online.” Sources said the process to make the TDRs online will cost Rs32 lakh.

A TDR is issued in the form of a certificate and gives additional buildable rights to its owner. TDRs are issued as compensation to any land owner, if the government takes possession of the land to develop a public utility service on it. This buildable right can be used on any other plot by the builder, or can be traded or sold to another holder.

The move has been welcomed by developers. City-based developer Bhavesh Sangrajka said, “There is a lot of fraud and duplication of TDR certificates at present, as they are precious and give builders additional built-up area in a space-starved city. Once the process is online, it will be more difficult to forge TDR certificates or trade them internally, between builders at very high prices."

BMC will finalise the contractor for this process by the end of this month, and the software will become functional online within three months, which means the whole process will take four months, the civic official said.