01 January,2015 07:16 AM IST | | Sharad Vyas
Owners willing to surrender their land for development of public projects or amenities, could get an increase in TDR transactions
In a major move that could boost development of thousands of acres of reserved land meant for public projects in urban areas, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweaked development bylaws to give attractive incentives for Transferable Development Right (TDR) transactions on Wednesday.
The new rules simply mean that the government will give plot owners willing to surrender their land for development of public projects and amenities, an increase of 50% to 100% in TDR, that is twice the plot's potential, or FSI up to 2.
The changes will make TDR highly attractive to the owners, vis-a-vis the compensation offered currently under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act announced in 2013, that proposed the payment of compensations up to 4 times the market value in rural areas and twice the value in urban areas.
The government hopes the latest changes to the TDR rules will galvanise and rationalise the TDR market, and encourage private owners who currently fear losing land to government acquisition without adequate compensation, to give up their land.
To prevent any misuse of the additionally generated TDR, as has happened in the past with the Mumbai TDR market at times controlled by a cartel of few builders, the government will also additionally index the TDR, connecting it to the ready reckoner rate of the market, officials said. The government will also remove the loading ability cap of TDR on a plot, which is currently restricted to 0.8% of the plot size.
The government move comes amidst fears that urban bodies and corporations in the state are slowly running out of funds to acquire large tracts of private land for development of public projects.
TDR more attractive
According to the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, the state must acquire a plot within 12 months of a purchase notice being served. In case of its failure, the land is available to the owners as the reservation stands deleted.
"It was always advisable to make TDR more attractive following the announcement of Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, otherwise most owners would opt to discharge land under it, for which neither BMC nor other corporations have enough funds," said an official.
