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Working Paper ‐ 4
W
Land
d reservatioons forr the urban
u p
poor:
The caase of tow
wn plan
nning scchemes in
i Ahmeedabad
Rutul Josh
R hi
Praashant San
nga
D
December 200
09
Centre for
f Urban
n Equity
(An NR
RC for Min
nistry of Hoousing and Urban Pov
verty Alleviiation, Govvernment of
o India)
CE
EPT Univerrsity
Working Paper – 4
Rutul Joshi1
Prashant Sanga2
December 2009
1
Faculty of Planning and Public Policy & CUE (Centre for Urban Equity), CEPT University,
joshirutul@cept.ac.in
2
This work is partially based on the field investigations carried out by Prashant Sanga for his masters’ level
dissertation. prashantsanga@gmail.com
Disclaimer
The comments and opinions in this paper are of the authors and not of the Centre for Urban
Equity or CEPT University.
The Urban Housing Challenge
Time and again, it has been pointed out that an essential dimension of urban development is
addressing the need for secured shelter for the low income groups in the cities, in particular
of the slum dwellers. Slums represent poor living quality and also indicate urban distress. At
the same time, these also indicate a housing solution as well as investments by the poor in
urban housing stock.
Scarcity of developed and serviced land, high land prices, rising prices of materials and
resource constraints of government agencies are some of the factors which forces the urban
poor to live in a substandard housing and unhealthy environment. Land in urban area, on one
hand, is a scarce resource which needs to be utilized appropriately in order to achieve
balanced development while on the other hand, there is a very big need to supply land for
housing the poor.
The total housing shortage in India was about 24.71 million dwelling units in the year 2007.
Amongst this, 21.78 million dwelling units were required for SEWS (social and economically
weaker section) housing while 2.89 million dwelling units, for LIGs (Low Income Group).
National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) 2002 survey indicate that 52,000 slums hold
eight million urban households, representing 14 per cent of the total urban population in the
country. This explains the failure of provision of adequate housing stock with minimum basic
services for the urban poor resulting in rapid growth among the slum population in the cities.
Low affordability of the poor poses a very important challenge in ‘Housing for All’ goal of
the National Housing Policy of 2007. Such conditions create an ever mounting ‘house-less’
and ‘land-less’ population in the cities which takes shelter in slums and squatter settlement.
As per Ministry of Housing And Urban Poverty Alleviation, SEWS households and LIG
households are defined as the families having monthly household income of less than Rs.
3,300 and Rs. 7,300 respectively. However, this has been the subject to revision by the
Steering Committee of the Scheme of Affordable Housing from time to time. The total
number of households coming under the category of ‘SEWS’ in the city of Ahmedabad were
105,472 as on November 2005.
One of the biggest hindrances to implement developmental project related to the urban poor
is the availability of land and number of government agencies have, time and again, argued
so. In order to make land available to the government, various planning systems of the
country have practices of reserving land for public purposes out of the total land pool.
Land Development Mechanism – Town Planning Schemes in
Gujarat
In Gujarat and Maharashtra, land pooling mechanism is adopted for urban land development.
Under this, Town Planning (TP) Schemes are prepared for lands which are not acquired by
the government agency. It is reshaped, readjusted and returned to the original owner.
Generally when a TP Scheme is laid in an area, about 40 per cent of land is utilised in
providing common infrastructure and facilities like roads, gardens, play grounds etc. This
proportion of land area is deducted from each of the individual land owners’ original land.
Land parcels retained by the planning authority are then used for ‘public purposes’.
Evidently, the land area of a land owner decreases but overall value of the land increases
several times because with the implementation of the town planning schemes, the land
parcels become more organised and accessible with better infrastructure provision.
In Maharashtra, the TP Schemes are prepared and implemented under Maharashtra Regional
and Town Planning Act, 1966; and in Gujarat, Gujarat Town Planning and Urban
Development Act (GTPUD), 1976. Major difference between land pooling mechanism (TP
Scheme) and land acquisition mechanism is that under the land pooling, the benefit of urban
development is realized by the original owner of the land, whereas in the acquisition model,
the planning agency benefits and not the original owner.
At the local area level, the potential of any plot improves with regularity of shape, improved
accessibility, availability of facilities in the neighbourhood and better linkage with other parts
of the city and TP Schemes facilitates these changes. The improved potential obviously
results in increment of market value. Since this increase takes place without any effort on the
part of the owner, it forms ‘Unearned Increment’ which can be shared by the owner and the
government agency. The owner receives compensation for the land deducted from his
original plot. The owner also retains at least half of the increment in market value of the plot
immediately available and full increment in the future.
The TP Scheme as a detailed local area planning mechanism has been practiced in Gujarat for
more than last eight decades. In Ahmedabad, the first TP Scheme was prepared in Jamalpur
in 1917. Area for a TP scheme is taken as 250 acres to 300 acres (100 or more ha) as a thumb
rule. It was prepared under the provisions laid by Bombay Town Planning Act, 1915. Now
the GTPUD Act, 1976 provides for the planning and administration of TP Schemes in the
state.
Research design and limitations
This paper examines the role and effectiveness of the much talked about Town Planning
Schemes of Ahmedabad in providing land for the poor households. For this, first of all the list
of reserved land in Ahmedabad was acquired from the Municipal Corporation. Based on the
list, the reserved land for the SEWS housing were sorted out, located and mapped.
It was found that 172 plots were allocated for SEWS housing which amounts to total area of
135 hectare. All the 172 plots were visited and the detailed land inventory comprising of the
size of the plot, proposed and current use, access to road and basic services was prepared and
analysed.
However, the field investigations carried out in January 2009 of the available list of reserved
plots was comprised of the land parcels located in the pre-2006 municipal limits of
Ahmedabad3. The adjoining areas to the municipal limits were being planned and
administered by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) till 2006. And thus
the current work is limited to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s jurisdiction till 2006
and it takes in account the town planning schemes planned and implemented between 1976
and 2006.
3
The limits of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation were expanded from 256 sq kms to 464.16 sq kms in 2006
and subsequently.
Map 1: Distribution of all the reserved lands in As per the GTPUD Act (1976), of
Ahmedabad
the 40-50 per cent of remaining
land for public purpose, 15 per
cent of land is reserved for roads,
5 per cent for open spaces (play
ground, garden, parks), 5 per cent
for social infrastructure (schools,
dispensaries, fire station, public
utility, etc.) and there are also
norms for up to 10 per cent
reservations for SEWS housing.
To be precise, section 40(j) of
GTPUD Act provides for “the
reservation of land to the extent
of ten per cent; or such
percentage as near there to as
possible of the total area covered
under the scheme, for the purpose
of providing housing
accommodation to the members
of S.E.W.S.” The ownership of
the common plot/land reserved
Chart 1: Public Purpose Land within AMC Limits 2006
for public purposes rests with the
government or local authority.
The map above shows the
locations of the ‘public purpose’
reserved land in the pre-2006
municipal limits in Ahmedabad
city.
Based on the secondary
information collected from the
Town Planning department of
Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation in 2009, it has been observed that 1,692 ha of land has been kept reserved for
public purposes by the local authority. Out of 1,692 ha of land, 172 plots are allocated for
SEWS housing which amounts to total area of 135 ha (Chart 1).
Chart 1 shows that maximum land is allocated for miscellaneous use, which includes parking,
small markets, pumping station, fire station, government buildings and recreational purpose.
The land for miscellaneous use accounts for 623 ha or 36.8 per cent of the total reserved
lands for public purpose. This is followed by saleable land for commercial purposes and its
accounts for 20.7 per cent of the total public purpose land. The purpose of the saleable lands
is to earn profit in order to recover the cost of those lands which are used for social purpose.
The allocation of the public lands for slum up gradation and social sectors (schools and
dispensary) is small, around 8 per cent (142 ha) and 6 per cent (162 ha) respectively. In
contrast, the lands reserved for open space and garden accounts 16 per cent of the total or 282
ha. This indicates that SEWS housing and social amenities do not form a priority in
Development plan (DP) reservations.
Out of thhe 172 plotss being alloccated for thee SEWS onlly 10 plots are being ussed as SEW WS
4
housing which is onnly 6.1 per centc of land out of the total
t 135.85 hectare of land . Out of o
these all the land parrcels locatedd on the mapp 2, the AMC C might not have all thee land pockeets
‘ready to
o build’. Much of this laand might bee entangled in i the planniing process where the TP T
Scheme might not be b finalised and sanctiooned or som me of the laand might bee under legal
disputes. Looking onnly at the TP P Schemes off eastern Ahhmedabad whhich have reservations foor
SEWS ho ousing, theree are 42 draaft TP Schem mes and onlyy 10 TP Schhemes have beenb finaliseed
completeely. Our studdy verified th WS housing is
hat the owneership of thee reserved laands for SEW
with the AMC. Moree than 34 haa of SEWS housing h landd parcels aree vacant. Thhis is possiblly
because most
m of the lands are loocated on thoose TP Scheemes which are still to be b sanctioneed
and they are in eitherr preliminaryy or draft staage.
In any caase, the AMCC had aboutt 68.99 ha off land (vacan
nt+agriculturral+others) where
w there is
a scope to
t use the lan
nd as SEWSS housing. Table 2 show ws that on thee given land (68.99 ha), it
4
In the TP
P Scheme at Odhav
O with finaal plot numberr 38 and 86, co
onstructions foor the SEWS housing
h had juust
started in September
S 2009.
is possible to build more than 27,000 housing units following the existing FSI norms (1.8)
and following the current norms of construction for the EWS housing (25 sq. mt. per unit).
With an increased FSI of 2, more than 30,000 housing units could be built.
Table 2: Housing Supply Possibility on Reserved Lands
Case 1 Case 2
Available Land (Ha) 68.99 68.99
FSI (as per DCR) 1.80 2.00
Available Built up 124.18 137.98
In Sq Mts 1,241,820.00 1,379,800.00
SEWS Unit size 25.00 25.00
Number of Units 49,673.00 55,192.00
SEWS Unit size 30.00 30.00
Number of Units 41,394.00 45,993.00
SEWS Unit size 45.00 45.00
Number of Units 27,596.00 30,662.00
In essence, reserving lands for the SEWS housing are deficiently planned; inadequately
financed and inefficiently implemented. Only reason why this mechanism survives and is
practiced is because it is legally binding under the GTPUD Act. It is an example of a
mechanism which is mainly devised for the poor but does not work for them. However, if this
mechanism can be used effectively to provide land for the urban poor’s housing, it can be a
most useful mechanism.
References:
1. AMC and AUDA with CEPT University (2006). City Development Plan.- Ahmedabad.
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority,
Ahmedabad.
2. AUDA (2006): Draft Development plan of AUDA-2011. Ahmedabad Urban Development
Authority, Ahmedabad.
3. Kundu, Amitabh and Mahadevia Darshini (2002), ‘Ahmedabad–Poverty and
Vulnerability in a Globalizing Metropolis’, Manak Publications, New Delhi.
4. MoUD (2005): Guideline for the project on Basic services to urban poor, to be taken up
under JNNURM, Ministry of Urban Development, GOI, New Delhi
5. MoHUPA (2007): National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy 2007. Ministry of
Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, GOI, New Delhi.
6. MoHUPA (2007): National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy, 2005, September 6, 2005.
Source: muepa.nic.in/policies/duepa/DraftNHHP2005-9.pdf.
7. United Nations Human Settlements Programme (2003), The Challenge of Slums, Earthscan
Publications Ltd., London
List of CUE Working Papers
WP 1 Subversive Urban Development in India: Implications on Planning Education, by
Darshini Mahadevia and Rutul Joshi, December 2009.
WP 2 Approaches to the Lands for the Urban Poor, India: A workshop Report, by Darshini
Mahadevia, Rutul Joshi and Rutool Sharma, December 2009.
WP 3 Integrating the Urban Poor in Planning and Governance Systems, India: A Workshop
Report, by Darshini Mahadevia, Rutul Joshi and Rutool Sharma, December 2009.