Unlocking urban land: need of the day
Urban land holds huge potential that can be easily unlocked for the public good. However, care needs to be taken to ensure that the benefits are not cornered by a few, the environmentis not destroyed and the state is not deprived of revenue
Urban India is bursting at its seams. Our metropolitan cities are in urgent need of serviced land for housing and a variety of other requirements. Serviced urban land is unfortunately not available for the asking. In fact, it is the most expensive resource today and prices have gone through the roof. With limited availability of serviced land, real estate has become extremely expensive. Where it actually pinches is the housing sector, particularly for the lower and middle income populations.
One of the ways in which several cities across the world have tided over the problem of limited land supply is to unlock the inherent potential of urban land. We can do this in our cities too.
Underutilised housing estates
Large parcels of urban land are available in the form of housing estates developed by the state and Central governments where the level of utilisation is extremely low. Buildings there have outlived their life span and are nearly crumbling. With a little modification in the local laws, by increasing densities, allowing higher floor area ratio more families can be housed and value of the land can be unlocked.
As a matter of fact, the Maharashtra housing authority, MHADA, has recently initiated such a scheme in Mumbai and a number of their old
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