TDR and much more for Karanataka municipalities' residents

BENGALURU: The town-planning authorities will grant two and a half times the “notional land" for every foot of land acquired for public purposes or projects in Bengaluru and other municipalities in Karnataka. The notional land here refers to the transferable development right (TDR) the government awards to a property owner in lieu of cash compensation.

The existing regulations allow TDR of one and a half times of the area acquired. The sweetener does not end here. The government has also decided to take into account the buildings on such properties and grant TDR against them too. The present regulations provide for the grant of TDR only for the plot being acquired and not buildings.

The latest changes are aimed at making the concept of TDR attractive to property owners so that they will increasingly opt for accepting “notional land“ for surrendering real land. As the name itself suggests, these TDRs are tradable papers which a property developer can use in any area within the municipality .

The state government has decided to be generous with its TDR policy as the new land acquisition law notified by the NDA government provides for generous cash compensation of about three to four times for the and acquired. “We have introduced quite a few new things in our new TDR policy and that includes linking the TDR o the guidance value of the area where property is being acquired," Town and Country Planning Director Shanthappa B Honnur told ET.

For instance, a TDR for 100 sqft of land issued for one area, say Sadashiva nagar, is not the same for the equal vol ume of land in Kengeri. The two TDRs are equal only if the guidance value for the two areas are same. Otherwise, the TDR issued for an area of lower guid ance value will go down proportionately if used for Vittal Mallya road area.Likewise, a TDR issued for Vittal Mallya road area will go up in value, and the user can claim proportionately higher area if it is applied in an area of lower guidance value, say Uttarahalli.

The government introduced the TDR concept in 2004-05 to help municipal bodies to deal with land acquisitions for public purposes without having to pay as invariably every municipality is bankrupt and no public project would happen if the municipality were to pay in cash.

“We have also introduced concepts like heritage TDR, affordable housing TDR, park and open space TDR etc," Honnur said. Since regulations don't allow construction of buildings around heritage sites, the government has decided to issue TDR for the equal amount of space.“It will be unfair on our part to expect an individual to forgo rights over his property just because he lives next to a heritage site. So, this TDR concept will help all such property owners," Honnur said.

The government, he said, would offer TDR policy to other government agencies like National Highway Authority (NHAI), too. If a property owner prefers TDR over cash compensation to a plot NHAI is taking over, then NHAI could pay the compensation amount to the town planning authority which will pool such resources, and use them for public purposes later.