Patna, Sept. 12: The proposed master plan for Patna Metropolitan Region (PMR), 2031, is eyeing certain land management schemes being implemented in foreign countries, including the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia, among others.

Moreover, the city may emulate the urban growth strategies followed in a few well-planned states of the country, including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

The prevalent unplanned growth of the capital has necessitated zoning of areas as regulatory mechanism for land use in the plan. However, the proposed land use regulations in the PMR have further necessitated certain urban area improvement schemes, better termed as land management schemes. Thus, the proposed master plan being prepared by the state urban development department has taken into consideration best practices followed across the country or even abroad.

One of the popular land-management schemes being considered is termed transfer of development rights (TDR), which is presently being used in Mumbai, New Jersey, Chicago, Virginia and Montgomery among others. TDR is a practice where the landowner surrenders certain portion of built-up area of his land and gets additional built-up area in return. The landowner can either utilise the additional built-up area for his own use or transfer it to another person for an agreed sum of money. This land development scheme is highly effective as compared to traditional cumbersome processes of acquiring land for road widening, parks, play grounds, schools and other civic facilities. TDR has been included as one of the provisions of the draft of the Bihar Municipal Building Bye-Laws & Building Code-2011, prepared by the urban development department.

Another land management practice being considered is accommodation reservation, which at present is being used for the development of Mumbai. Accommodation reservation is a practice where community facilities are developed without need of land acquisition by the government. Here, the landowner freely provides the land/building to the corporation/local body for development of community facilities. In return, the owner enjoys additional floor area ratio of the land, which he can utilise for his own purpose.

Another popular land management scheme is termed as town planning scheme (TPS), which is an area planning technique patterned on the concept of land re-adjustment and presently being used in Maharastra and Gujarat. Here, the state government is not required to acquire land on its own for developing infrastructure but the landowners themselves are made stakeholders. The new areas for growth to be opened up for development are clearly marked and divided into smaller areas and such areas are termed as TPS which involve 100-250 landowners. The plots are reorganised by making provision for roads, water supply, sewerage and other public amenities. In this process, some parts of the plots (maximum 20-40 per cent) may be acquired for providing such civic utilities. However, since the landowners are stakeholders and they are also provided compensation in cash for the land, which raises the real estate prices in that area, they normally do not protest against such development.

Guided urban development is a land-management scheme presently being used in Tamil Nadu for converting private land in urban areas from rural to urban uses. This scheme uses both government role for providing infrastructure and landowners for paying for development of infrastructure or betterment levy.

Another widely praised land management scheme termed as land pooling is presently being used in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and western Australia. This involves bringing large number of small parcels of plots in one consolidated land area. The consolidated area is properly developed with all infrastructure including road, water supply, drainage, electricity, telephone and open spaces.

Another land management scheme being looked after is termed as purchase through negotiation, which is presently being used in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir.

Here, private parties for designated use in a prescribed zone purchase the land.