BENGALURU: In a major relief for landowners who have parted with their properties for government infrastructure projects but have waited for years to get their TDR certificates, the State Government has now set the ball rolling to speed up the process by simplifying it.
These certificates permit one to avail double the total area of land that has been surrendered for developmental works or to transfer it to someone else in need of the land in exchange of money. This can be availed within the local planning authority’s jurisdiction.
“We have just started the process of issuing TDR certificates through our agencies. The move will offer much relief to many property owners waiting for them,” Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development, Rakesh Singh, told TNIE. The issuance of TDR to land losers went through massive delays due to various stages of the process being passed on repeatedly between BBMP and BDA, said a source.
The State Cabinet in June 2021 cleared an amendment to Section 14B of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act to simplify it and thereby expedite the process. “The stages in connection with the issuance of the TDR involved forms moving to and fro between BBMP and BDA and any other agencies involved. After the amendment was introduced, all the processes will be taken care of by BBMP which will be like a single window clearance system. When it finally submits the file to BDA, its TDR cell will just go ahead and quickly issue the certificate without any delay,” he said.
The easing of the process would motivate other property owners to part with their properties readily for present and future infrastructure projects, the source added. In a different kind of case related to TDR, the HC, while hearing a petition filed by 10 petitioners in April this year, ordered BBMP and the State Government to start issuing these certificates within three months. They had surrendered their land for widening of roads proposed in the Revised Master Plan 2015 but never got their certificates as the BBMP later said the lands were no longer needed.