Govt to unlock 30k acres in NCR - FE

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FE Home- Real Estate - Story
MOVE TO RING IN PRICE CORRECTION, BOOST HOUSING SUPPLY
Govt to unlock 30k acres in NCR
Vishakha Talreja, Rajat Guha
Posted: Wednesday, Sep 22, 2010 at 0021 hrs IST
Updated: Wednesday, Sep 22, 2010 at 0902 hrs IST

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/govt-to-unlock-30k-acres-in-ncr/685593/

New Delhi: The National Capital Region (NCR) may soon have 30,000
acres of land available for residential construction, if the
government’s steps in this direction bear fruit. The Centre is
attempting to fast-track the resolution of disputes over NCR title
deeds, which force developers to stay away. NCR is estimated to be
short of 5 lakh housing units, and demand is growing at 1 lakh units a
year.

The move will spark price correction, releasing over 2 million housing
units. The exercise piloted by the urban development ministry and
implemented by the NCR planning board, will be kicked off by year-end.

The exercise will unlock land in three states: eight districts in
Haryana (Gurgaon, Rewari, Faridabad, Sonepat, Rohtak, Panipat, Jhajjar
and Mewat); five districts of Uttar Pradesh, (Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar,
Meerut, Baghpat and Gautam Budh Nagar) and one district (Alwar) in
Rajasthan. The government plans to seek help from local bodies to
identify and verify land ownership, after which independent agencies
will cross-check data.

“This is good for developers who can get land and good for consumers
who can get residential units at lower prices. But one has to see how
it is implemented. India doesn’t have a very good history in
implementing such policy initiatives. One also has to see how soon the
free land can be made available for developers,” Abhishek Kiran Gupta,
head-research, Jones Lang LaSalle, India said.

“In any big transaction, the problem of title deed arises at some
point. We are trying to work out a formula. Various suggestions have
come in. The exact strategy will be worked out in some time,” an urban
development ministry official said.

The ministry plans to advise states to create an ad hoc title deed in
the name of the claimant to facilitate the transaction. “This should
not be difficult as in villages and small towns, everyone is aware of
who owns which land. The only problem in some cases is that official
records are not available. This exercise will help do away with this
problem,” said an official from the Haryana housing board.