Sourcing and Managing Land in Urban Context

Sourcing and Managing Land in Urban Context

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·??????Jit Kumar Gupta

?Land remains largely a finite resource so far as the planet earth is concerned. There exist limited possibilities of land being destroyed or being created. Attempts have been made globally, by cities/countries to reclaim sea/water bodies, for creating land, but that option has been exercised by few, because of the cost and technological implications which such conversions/reclamation involve. Only option that exists for sourcing land for different uses is the conversion of existing /available land from one use to another.

Land remains the most critical component of human settlements because land remains the platform??for all human activities. All human activities including physical, social, cultural and economic, are essentially consumers of land. Accordingly, land is needed for all development projects to become reality. Many development projects don’t see the light of day and numerous other get delayed, due to non-availability of appropriate/adequate/affordable land. In majority of cases inordinate high cost of land makes the project financially unviable. High cost/valuation of land remains major challenge in sourcing land for the urban development projects. However, valuation of urban land remains largely a function/product of; prevailing market conditions; demand and supply position; availability of financial resources; conditions prevailing in the real estate market; location of land; level of accessibility; permitted land use; freedom from physical/social/environmental encumbrances; status of development; incentives available; branding of the area; legal provisions, future potential of the site etc. Urban land market remains very complex, dynamic, always evolving and devolving, largely driven by political agenda, government policies and programs, placed from time to time related to urban development and promoting??planned development of town/cities.

?Government launching programs like JNnurm, Smart cities, AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission, Nulm, PMAY-U, HRIDAY has led to increase in land values in the cities where such Yojanas/Missions were made applicable. Many of these programs have suffered/delayed due to non-availability of appropriate land in the urban areas. In the urban market land is being treated as commodity and not a resource, which is creating road- block in making urban land market more effective and efficient. Non-availability of data related to landownership, areas, encumbrances etc has emerged as the major cause for operational inefficiency of urban land market and sourcing land for urban development. Majority of disputes pending in Indian courts, directly or indirectly, relate to land only.

?Land remains highly fragmented with multiple ownership in urban context which makes sourcing of land very cumbersome. In order to source land for urban purpose, large number of options have been used in the past, including ?and involving;?compulsory acquisition to making landowners partners in the urban development process. Demand for urban uses and promoting planned development has been largely met??by acquiring more and more rural/agricultural land by Urban Development Authorities and other public agencies through the policy of large-scale acquisition, development and disposal of land. In addition, number of innovative options have also been used to source land; using land exchange, offering development rights, using derelict land and making optimum use of available urban land resource. Various options??have been used for sourcing land by; Public/ parastatal agencies; development authorities; private developers, colonizers etc , in urban areas for urban use. ?The options used I the Indian context include;

????????Compulsory Acquisition of land under the State power of Eminent Domain- Land Acquisition Act

????????Purchasing land by Negotiation from landowners

????????Bartering Raw land with Developed Land/Land Exchange

????????Land Pooling and Land Distribution

????????Town Planning Scheme

????????Land Pooling by Private Developers-Granting license to private colonies set by developers – Haryana Model

????????Optimum Utilisation of vacant Government Land

????????Recycling the derelict land in urban areas.

????????Transfer of Development Rights

????????Accommodation Reservation

????????Guided Urban Development

????????Taxing Vacant Urban Lands

????????Increasing Floor Area Ratio/buildable area/height on old/new sites

????????Utilizing Peri-Urban Areas

????????Change of land use

????????Extending limits of urban local bodies

?Conducting Land Audit

All these options have been used by various stakeholders at different time and to different extent for procuring land for urban development. These options have their positivity and negativities and relevance in a particular context and accordingly have been implemented with a degree of success and failure. However, simply sourcing the land for urban development should not be the focus of the different development agencies, but more critical will be to make optimum use of available land and to minimise the use of land for urban development. In fact, most damage has been done by acquiring large chunk of land for urban projects, but very rarely any land audit has been done by agencies allotting such land to assess the utilization of land which was developed and allotted for constructing houses, setting up industries /institutions/ trade& commerce/ shopping malls /hospitals /educational institutions etc. In majority of cases, it has been observed that large number of plots allotted, remain vacant and unutilised for a considerable period after allotment, but still development agencies go on acquiring more and more land and making plots available to applicants. This leads to large speculation on the land allotted besides loss in productivity/employment due to non-setting of the industry. This needs to be checked in order to minimize the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural uses and to optimise the available land resource in the urban context. Inbuilt efficient system of land audit needs to be created and made operational by all the agencies involved in land development in urban context, for conducting audit of the land allotted and its utilisation. All those plot owners should be penalised, if they donot use the land allotted, consuming entire built area permissible within a period of five years of allotment. In case of large sized plots, unutilized land should be retrieved after giving back the allotment price paid and allotted to applicants waiting for allotment. Land audit conducted periodically, will help in making optimum use of developed land by ensuring construction/utilisation of ?the entire ?built space permissible on the land allotted.

Strategizing Land Development

?For preserving the land and making optimum use of land, it needs to be mandated that all land acquired for development purposes must be used within a period of one year of acquisition. Land acquired should not be permitted to be left unutilised for number of years. In order to retain the productivity of the agricultural land acquired, till it is used for development, it needs to be leased out to landowner for growing crops. This will not only retain the productivity of land but will also generate revenue for the development authorities. It will also contribute food grains etc for the nation. Further, entire land should not be developed. In case of large sized projects, development of the project should be phased out and only that much area should be developed which is required to be allotted. This will require detailed survey to be carried out for making realistic assessment of the demand for the developed plots. Rest of the land should not be developed and permitted ?to be used for agriculture, till needed for development for next phases..

?Reviewing Land Norms

Irrational and unrealistic land norms and standards specified by different authorities for allotting land for public amenities, facilities and institutions, have emerged as the major cause?which has led to perpetuating large misuse, abuse and underutilisation of the land allotted to various agencies/individuals/institutions. Large pockets of land allotted, remain unutilised/under-utilized/ vacant for number of years together, because of allotment of land made remain excess of the land needed for the project. Optum utilisation of the urban land will require, norms and standards specified for allotment of institutional sites including healthcare, education, community facilities, amenities are critically reviewed, rationalised and revised to make them more realistic and least consumers of land. Norms for these amenities and facilities should be based on utilising the land on the basis of 24x7x365.?This will help in not only saving lot of land but will also help in making optimum use of land. In this regard, land norms specified by the state technical universities, University Grant Commission, All India Council of Technical Education, Council of Architecture, Medical Council of India etc, for setting up new technical institutions also need to be reviewed, rationalised and revised. Considering the large area specified for setting up of these institutions, majority of land acquired remains vacant and unutilised, leading to misuse and wastage of precious land resource.

?Rationalising Master Plans

?Master plans/ development plans /layout plans, prepared for various urban centres/projects?are also known to be ?largely responsible for conversion of large-scale peri-urban areas coming under haphazard and unplanned development. Master plans/Development plans are largely responsible for uncontrolled growth and expansion of the urban areas, mandating large amount of agricultural land to be used for urban purposes. Master plans never focus on optimum utilisation of the urban land. In fact they have emerged as ?the major promoters of conversion of large amount of agricultural land into urban uses. In order to make cities least consumers of land and making them land efficient, all master plans must focus on and ensure that cities are made more compact requiring least amount of urban land for their development. In order to make cities least consumers of land Master plans etc, must make cities compact and least consumers of land. Globally, planners are trying to make cities compact by defining higher population densities; raising heights of the structures; building inside, not outside; building vertical, not horizontal; planning for people, not vehicles and building high, not low; as the mechanism to minimise the demand for land for urban purposes. Attempt is being made to make ?cities walkable and promoters of bicycling so as to minimise the area under roads and parking. Straggles focussing on stopping melting of the cities and their uncontrolled expansion are also being leveraged to make cities land efficient and least consumers of land. All planning tools need to be critically and objectively reviewed, rationalised and redefined on the alter of promoting optimum utilisation of land resource.

Extending Municipal Limits

In the Indian context, municipal limits of urban settlements are being extended periodically to increase the revenue of urban local bodies or to upgrade their status from municipalities to municipal corporations. These extensions are made without carrying making any study and carrying out any analysis, whether city requires more area for expansion or development. Extension of urban limits remains largely a political decision dictated by whims, fancies and political agenda carried forward by the ruling party. This practice has done greatest damage to land resource, by converting the nature of land use from agricultural to non-agricultural and?from rural to urban. Extension of municipal limits is being done, despite the fact cities still has large chunks of vacant land available for development within the urban limits. This practice needs to be stopped and made rational. Extending urban limits should be done as an exception rather than a rule and that too after studying the relevant factors establishing the need for extending such limits. Extension should involve addition of area limited to meet the actual needs?of the city growth and development. This would help in saving large amount of agricultural land being converted into non-agricultural uses. It will also help in optimising the existing land and minimising the speculation of land lying vacant within urban limits.

Permitting Change of Land use

Liberal policy used by state governments, to permit change of land use of agricultural land into non-agricultural use within/outside the urban limits, has also done lot of damage than good to the land resource. Majority of governments are using this mechanism for generating large revenue for the state by levying hefty fee for permitting such change in land use. While granting permission for the land use, no study and analysis is made of the likely impact of such change of land use, on the environment and ecology of the surrounding areas/settlements. Such permissions invariably lead to large scale mushroom development in the adjoining area and the major roads providing accessibility to area/site, which has been granted permission for change of land use . In order to rationally manage the land resource, change of land use should be granted based on rationally formulated policy and after studying in detail the impact of such change on the adjoining area/settlements.

Defining State Urban Land Policy

Land being a state subject, is being solely regulated by states at their own level. There remains absence of any uniformity in approach, intent and contents in the policies followed by different states while dealing with land in urban areas, which remains at large variance. ?However, in majority of cases, urban land policy remains conspicuous by its absence. In fact urban land is being managed by proxy in large number of states based on fragmented policies framed by different departments dealing with land. In majority of cases there are multiplicity of agencies operating in the domain of urban development and each agency, in its wisdom, tries to define its agenda regarding the use of urban land. This approach has caused lot of damage to the urban land by its misuse. Accordingly, in order to rationalise and optimise the use of land, states must formulate a comprehensive policy for the urban land, which should be followed by all stakeholders, both public and private, while dealing with land and its development. All departments dealing with land must be brought under an umbrella system for thinking collectively and evolving a comprehensive policy for the state. Accordingly, government of India should mandate all states to put in place, on priority, a detailed policy on sourcing /managing/optimisation of urban land,?based on a model urban land policy evolved at the national level, so that land resource in the country is ?preserved/protected/promoted and managed effectively and efficiently.

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