UP adopts land pooling in Ghaziabad as an alternative to acquisition

Officials added the model has been put in place for different development authorities in cities including Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad and Ghaziabad.

The officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) on Wednesday said that the state government has adopted the land pooling model for development and will soon come out with rules under the land pooling policy.

The Ghaziabad Development Authority has adopted the land pooling policy as an alternative to land acquisition and direct land purchase, which are usually used. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

Officials said the concept has been roped in as an alternative to land acquisition and direct land purchase, which are usually used.

Officials added the model has been put in place for different development authorities in cities including Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad and Ghaziabad.

“Under the policy, different land holders can come to authority with their collective pieces of land. The authority will then develop infrastructure facilities on certain portions of the collective piece land, while the rest of it can be sold off, and a part of the redeveloped land can be handed over to the landholders in the same proportion in which they had initially pooled the land,” Kanchan Verma, authority’s vice chairperson, said.

“The redeveloped land can further be sold by the respective land holders,” she added.

She said that the authority will be tasked to carry out utility development activities and will sell off a portion of land to recover the cost incurred.

For instance, if a group of farmers pools 100 acres of land, the authority will develop utilities like roads, sewage treatment plants, parks, etc over nearly 45% of the land. A portion of the remaining developed land will later be handed over to the land holders, while another portion will be sold off by the authority to recover the cost of development.

The officials of the town planning department said that the concept of land pooling is preferred over land acquisition – a lengthy process which delays projects and also needs prior funds on part of the authority before the land is acquired.

“Under the land pooling process, the authority need not gather funds initially. It can develop facilities and recover costs by selling a certain portion of the pooled land in the form of plots. The contributors of the land will also benefit as they will get developed plots and can even get it converted to residential or commercial plots for further sales in the form of plots,” an official from authority’s town planning department said.

“The authority will develop the entire layout plan for the pooled land and take up development of utilities. The land holders will also have an option to get transferable development right (TDR). With the TDR, the land holder can surrender his developed land and can procure land elsewhere on the basis of the TDR,” the official added.