Urban department clears land pooling scheme

The municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department of the Andhra Pradesh government cleared the draft land pooling scheme (LPS). Following this, the executive committee of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) will have to approve the scheme. Reports indicate that HMDA wants to implement LPS in its jurisdiction in order to ensure planned and systematic development of the peripheral areas. According to the master plan of HMDA, land pooling scheme can be undertaken either by the authority, the civic body or a licensed private developer provided the conditions are fulfilled. Once the executive committee clears the draft, HMDA would probably be the first civic body to implement LPS in its metropolitan area as there are provisions in the HMDA Act, 2008, for LPS. The MA&UD department had constituted a committee for preparing detailed guidelines for land pooling projects. Under this scheme, individual owners or farmers could come together to develop land to an extent of 25 hectares (100 acre) or more with the clearance of HMDA and provide basic amenities like road, drinking water and street lighting.