Eye on 450 acres for model plan

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is set to notify 450 acres near Tamando in the city for the state's first town planning scheme through land readjustment.
Under the scheme, BDA will bring together the entire 450-acre private land only to reallocate to the owners after developing roads, drains, parks and other public amenities in a planned manner.
"We are hopeful about notifying the scheme for the identified 450 acres within this month," BDA vice-chairman Krishan Kumar told TOI on Monday.
Around 1,000 plots along the two-km stretch of the proposed Ring Road from Tamando towards Chandaka, will be part of the proposed scheme. After creating the land pool, BDA will return 60 to 65 per cent of the land to the owners by providing drain and road connectivity to all the plots.
After BDA notifies the scheme, the state government will appoint a valuation officer to aggregate the land documents and calculate the proportionate return plan to the beneficiaries. BDA will exploit 10 per cent of the land commercially to fund the development cost while 25 to 30 per cent would be used for amenities and communities.
BDA will start constructions of roads and drains after preliminary approval by the government. The entire process would take two to three years, another government officer said.
The identified 450-acre land has hardly any constructions. The statutory development agency would not give building plan approval to any project till the scheme is implemented, BDA sources said.
According to an estimate, cost of land after redevelopment would go up by eight to 10 times. The 450 acre can pave way for a township accommodating around 4 lakh people.
To implement the scheme, BDA has engaged an Ahmedabad-based agency as consultant. The agency has experience in providing consultancy to similar projects in Gujarat. BDA will replicate the scheme in other places after the maiden project takes off, Kumar said.
Developers have welcomed the move. "It is the only way to ensure systematic development without land acquisition which is a cumbersome process and a win-win situation for all," said D S Tripathy, joint secretary of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India.