BDA may acquire 700 acres of private land for SRZ

In a move that will help accommodate more people belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is mulling to acquire 600-700 acres of private land in and around the city.

The acquisition of private land is being planned by BDA for the Special Residential Zone (SRZ) mentioned in the draft Comprehensive City Development Plan (CDP) for Bhubaneswar prepared by IIT-Kharagpur.

The state government is understood to have given 100 acres of land to BDA for the SRZ.

“BDA is going to acquire 600-700 acres of land for the SRZ and this is a welcome move. We had suggested that 2000 acres needs to be earmarked for the SRZ”, an official of the Orissa chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (Credai) told Business Standard.

SRZ is the area earmarked for developing housing projects for the economically weaker sections of the society. The housing projects being developed on this zone will enjoy exemption from sales tax and value added tax.

In its draft CDP, IIT-Kharagpur had set aside 400 acres of land for the SRZ. Credai-Orissa felt that the area earmarked for the SRZ in the draft CDP of the city needs to be raised from 400 acres to 2,000 acres.

According to the draft CDP, the city’s population was projected at 30 lakh by 2030. To accommodate 30 lakh people in and around the city, an area of 9,286 acres has been earmarked for residential purposes.

The finalization of the CDP which was scheduled by the end of January this year had hit a delay as the BDA had received more than 5,000 complaints and objections pertaining to the draft CDP.There were objections to the draft CDP by different stakeholders, especially the real estate bodies like Credai-Orissa and the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA-Orissa).

Besides asking for a higher area for the SRZ, Credai-Orissa had made other suggestions to the BDA to ensure successful implementation of the upcoming CDP in the city and its adjoining areas.

According to Credai-Orissa, in many areas, the land use marked in the draft CDP are in conflict with the BDA approved plan where construction has been completed.

The association suggested that an area which has been approved for a particular zone should maintain the same status in the new CDP to keep the citizens hassle free and also to avoid any legal dispute.