Bakri Bazaar on Buddha Marg that has illegally come up on Patna Municipal Corporation land. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 4: If your dream home wish has dashed for price factor, blame it on encroachment of Patna Municipal Corporation land worth Rs 2,500 crore. The good news is: PMC is planning to recover them.

Even in this era of real estate boom, land owned by the civic body in upmarket localities across the city is either lying fallow or has been encroached upon by the land mafia. PMC officials and real estate businessmen claim, if these plots could be used for residential or commercial purposes, the property prices would have come down drastically.

“PMC owns about 400 acres of land in prime localities across the city. But the land mafia is in possession of much of it over the past several years. If this land can be rescued and used for commercial and residential purposes, property prices in the city will come down,” a senior corporation official told The Telegraph.

Real estate businessmen said if the government lands were made available, it would change the dynamics of the realty market.

“In places like Frazer Road, Buddha Marg and Exhibition Road, a cottah of land costs up to Rs 1 crore. Had the government plots been available, the price would have been much less,” said Nilesh Kumar Sinha, owner of Om Constructions, a city-based real estate company.

But illegal encroachments could have their days numbered, as the civic body has decided to recover all the encroached land.

“A private consultant has been appointed to study and survey the land owned by PMC. The report will be available in 10 days,” the official said. After the plots are recovered, residential and commercial projects would spring up on the places encroached now.

“Once there is a clear picture of the available land, we can plan better on how to use it. But this will take time,” the official added.

PMC commissioner Manish Kumar said a private consultant had been hired but refused to comment on future plans.

A source said the officials of the civic body were often hand in glove with the encroachers and land sharks. Some of them had allowed slums, commercial establishments and residencies to be constructed on PMC land in exchange of a pretty packet. Bakri Bazaar on Buddha Marg is a case in point, where a market has come up illegally over 4 acres of PMC land. The civic body had taken no action against the encroachers despite a high court order.

Patna High Court on February 3 reprimanded PMC and the urban development department for failing to produce the master plan for Patna. A draft of the plan was published in 2006 and it proposed a planned urban development for an area of 333.2sqkm, including Danapur, Nizamat and Danapur cantonment. But the plan is yet to see the light of day and unplanned construction continues unchecked across the state capital.