Call To End Government Monopoly Over Land Urged
A senior urban development official has called for ending government monopoly over land to ensure balanced development of urban infrastructure. Land should be used as a resource to attract private investment for housing and urban development, said Omesh Saigal, member secretary of the National Capital Region Planning Board at a seminar organised by the International Real Estate Federation (FAIBCI) in the capital yesterday.
Pointing out that the government was facing a severe resource crunch for sectors such as urban planning, Saigal emphasised the need to increase the rate of return for investments in such projects in order to encourage private investment. Saigal said it was essential for the government to realise that providing housing to group C and D employees in posh urban localities prevented the full value of the land from being realised.
The government should instead construct houses for these employees in the neighbouring Delhi Metropolitan Area (DMA) towns and utilise the vacant spaces created for commercial purposes, he suggested. The money thus raised could be used to build houses in DMA towns and also invested in the development of transport facilities between Delhi and its neighbouring areas, he added.
Saigals proposal was endorsed by the Malaysian representative at the seminar, who said the Malaysian government had successfully implemented a similar plan during the last decade. As a result, the demand-supply gap in the availability of dwelling units in Kuala Lumpur and its adjoining areas had been brought down significantly, the representative added.
The seminar is part of a series being organised all over India for a FAIBCI trade delegation which is currently visiting India. Two earlier seminars have already been organised in Bangalore and Mumbai. The delegation consists of members from over 50 countries all over the world.
FIABCI proposes to hold a series of seminars to interact with property consultants and government authorities to address problems in this sector throughout the world.