Deccan Chronicle         27.11.2013

200 farmers to pool land

Hyderabad: Over 200 landowners have agreed to hand over 500 acres of land under the Land Pooling Policy to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority. This has finally set the stage for the Land Pooling scheme to take off on the city’s outskirts.

HMDA will develop the pooled land into plots of various sizes and provide civic, transport, social, environmental and other infrastructural facilities.

As satellite townships proposed by HMDA at various places have failed to take off, land pooling is being considered as one of the best ways to enable development of satellite townships within HMDA. The HMDA area is spread over 7,200 sq. km.

Of the 500 acres that the farmers are willing to give up, 270 acres are at Edulanagulapalli-Kollur villages on the western side of Outer Ring Road and nearly 250 acres are at Pratap Singaram and Gowrelli villages on the eastern side of the ORR.

HMDA commissioner Neerabh Kumar Prasad said they have planned to take up land pooling of 500 acres near Pratap Singaram and another 500 acres near Edulanagulapalli.

“It is an 1,000-acre pilot project. The land-pooling scheme is a win-win offer for the farmers and as well as for the HMDA. The farmers need not invest a single rupee and HMDA will give them fully developed plots with all amenities.

In return, the HMDA will get some share of land,” he said. Mallipeddi Subhash Reddy, a farmer from Pratap Singaram who is giving his 10-acre land to the land pool said, “I am trying to motivate and convince other small, medium and big farmers to participate in the land pooling scheme. I am just a graduate, but have studied in depth the land-pooling scheme. It has been a success in Gujarat,” he said.

Stating that the price of one acre of land in Pratap Singaram is currently between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 27 lakh, he said no single farmer, owning 10 acres or less, was financially able to take up plotting on his own.

“To make plots, one requires huge initial investments, run around the HMDA offices, pay various fees and spend lots of time in developing a layout. Here the HMDA is offering to do it all for you. If I give one acre of my land, the HMDA officials have assured to give us around 2,100 square yards of land.

Even one square yard of fully developed plot is sold at Rs 6,000 per sq. yard, I will get Rs 1.2 crore for 2,000 sq. yards against Rs 27 lakh for an undeveloped acre,” he said, adding price of land in the vicinity will also go up.

HMDA consultant B. Purushothama Reddy, said land pooling will curb haphazard growth and illegal development of plots.