Novel land pool scheme on cards

CHENNAI: In a bid to adequately compensate the land owners and acquire land smoothly for various projects, the State government is planning a land pooling scheme, where the owners could be stakeholders.Sources at the Directorate of Town and Country Planning told Express that the concept, which was based on the ‘Ahmedabad Model’ and had even been mentioned in the Justice Mohan Committee report, would come into being once the government amended the Town and Country Planning Act.The committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice S Mohan had suggested suitable amendments to the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act in July 2010. As per this scheme, land owners would submit their land to planning authorities, who would prepare a detailed development plan. Once the area is developed with roads and other amenities, the pooled land would go in for bidding to rope in investment for the development. Once the development work is over, the remaining land would be given back to the owner, which would be proportionate to the extent of land pooled. “The owners are likely to get back 55 per cent of the proportionate area of land pooled by them. The resulting plot will have enhanced value than it had previously,” a source said.Under this scheme, neither the government pays for the acquired land nor do land owners lose their land, whose value would have increased. However, when asked on what would happen to those land owners on whose land the structures have been built, DTCP sources said that they would be compensated with additional FSI and transferable development rights.The scheme would be implemented only if 60 per cent of land area owners agreed to pool their lands.  The time factor also played an important role as the development project has to be completed within 18 months once the plan is prepared. Interestingly, sources said the new scheme was better than the old one where land owner stood to lose as he had to gift his land for projects in exchange for a minimal  amount.