Hyderabad: Over 200 landowners have agreed to hand over 500 acres of land under the Land Pooling Policy to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority. This has finally set the stage for the Land Pooling scheme to take off on the city’s outskirts.
HMDA will develop the pooled land into plots of various sizes and provide civic, transport, social, environmental and other infrastructural facilities.
As satellite townships proposed by HMDA at various places have failed to take off, land pooling is being considered as one of the best ways to enable development of satellite townships within HMDA. The HMDA area is spread over 7,200 sq. km.
Of the 500 acres that the farmers are willing to give up, 270 acres are at Edulanagulapalli-Kollur villages on the western side of Outer Ring Road and nearly 250 acres are at Pratap Singaram and Gowrelli villages on the eastern side of the ORR.
HMDA commissioner Neerabh Kumar Prasad said they have planned to take up land pooling of 500 acres near Pratap Singaram and another 500 acres near Edulanagulapalli.
“It is an 1,000-acre pilot project. The land-pooling scheme is a win-win offer for the farmers and as well as for the HMDA. The farmers need not invest a single rupee and HMDA will give them fully developed plots with all amenities.
In return, the HMDA will get some share of land,” he said. Mallipeddi Subhash Reddy, a farmer from Pratap Singaram who is giving his 10-acre land to the land pool said, “I am trying to motivate and convince other small, medium and big farmers to participate in the land pooling scheme. I am just a graduate, but have studied in depth the land-pooling scheme. It has been a success in Gujarat,” he said.
Stating that the price of one acre of land in Pratap Singaram is currently between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 27 lakh, he said no single farmer, owning 10 acres or less, was financially able to take up plotting on his own.
“To make plots, one requires huge initial investments, run around the HMDA offices, pay various fees and spend lots of time in developing a layout. Here the HMDA is offering to do it all for you. If I give one acre of my land, the HMDA officials have assured to give us around 2,100 square yards of land.
Even one square yard of fully developed plot is sold at Rs 6,000 per sq. yard, I will get Rs 1.2 crore for 2,000 sq. yards against Rs 27 lakh for an undeveloped acre,” he said, adding price of land in the vicinity will also go up.
HMDA consultant B. Purushothama Reddy, said land pooling will curb haphazard growth and illegal development of plots.
Next: Monthly payment sought till project is completed
Monthly payment sought till project is completed
Hyderabad: Many more land owners (farmers) are willing to participate in the land pooling scheme, but only on the condition that Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority will pay them a monthly maintenance amount until the project is completed.
Pochampalli Venkat Reddy who along with his brother and a sister has given consent to give, in all, 27.5 acres of land to the land pool, said small farmers parting with half an acre to three acres of land depend on agricultural produce from the land for their livelihood.
“It will take at least one year for a layout of 500 acres to be fully developed. Given the government’s (HMDA) notoriety for delays and red-tapism, it may take two years or even more. In such a case, the HMDA should include in its land pooling scheme a monthly financial package for farmers to sustain themselves until the fully developed plots are handed over to them,” he said.
Venkat Reddy is a software engineer and an MBA. After returning from the United States, he is concentrating on promoting the land pooling scheme among farmers in his and surrounding villages.
How will the farmers earn their livelihood if they give away their land for the LPS scheme? The farmers have worked it all out. Indrasen P. of Edulanagulapalli said, “Even if we sell 1000 square yards at Rs 5,000 per square yard, we will get Rs 50 lakh. We can buy five acres of agricultural land 100 km from Hyderabad. Land pooling will allow farmers to also have a bank balance.”
However, there is no provision for interim payment in the HMDA Act. Unlike the private builders, who give some advance money to the land owners, the HMDA Act does not provide for such facility. HMDA officials said they will consider the request of farmers for monthly financial assistance until the project is completed, provided they are willing to part with a little more of their land.
Next: HMDA to end private monopoly
HMDA to end private monopoly
Hyderabad: Though private developers and builders have welcomed the entry of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority into the development of private layouts, there seems to be some bitterness.
The entry of HMDA in pooling the land of private individuals and then developing it into a layout will end the monopoly of the private developers. The private players used to do land pooling and HMDA used to only approve them according to the rules.
Though this is not the first time that HMDA will be developing layouts. Earlier HMDA (formerly HUDA) developed layouts in its own land and auctioned them. However, it rarely touched private lands. HMDA shot to fame as the “real estate agent of the state government” after it developed government and HMDA-owned lands into layouts and auctioned them to real estate firms.
Ashwin Rao of Manbhum Construction Company Private Limited said the competition between HMDA and private developers will result in better products being offered to customers.
He however, expressed doubts about whether HMDA has the manpower to implement the Land Pooling Scheme. Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association national president, C. Shekhar Reddy said HMDA should give instalment facility to private developers to pay the layout development fees.
