Land acquisition act has made urban land costly: NITI Aayog

Says there is no simple solution to this source of high price of land

The NITI Aayog in its three-year action agenda draft has suggested that anything short of amending the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 for providing affordable housing won’t lower land prices in urban areas. 

The agenda was put in the public domain on Thursday. In the chapter on urban housing, the Aayog has suggested number of ways in which land prices in urban areas, which is a major constraint in providing affordable housing, can be lowered.  

It says the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 fixes compensation for acquired land at rather high levels. In turn, this makes land acquired for affordable housing expensive and contributes to high costs. Short of amending the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, for the purpose of acquiring land for affordable housing, there is no simple solution to this source of high price of land.