NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, OCT 25
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Saturday unveiled real estate developer and town planner NK Patel’s new book titled “Sourcing Land For Urban Development: Issues and Options” . The book is a detailed first-of-its-kind book on country’s highly acclaimed land pooling system for planned urban development, and outlines the idea, methodology, legal interpretations, applications, benefits, and other aspects of town planning schemes, says a release.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel launched the book, which has been co-authored by NK Patel and Jit Kumar Gupta, Former Advisor in Town Planning Department, Punjab, at a function at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Auditorium on Saturday, in the presence of who’s who of real estate industry, leading town planners, architects, senior government officials, among others.
On the occasion, NK Patel said, “I am thankful to Chief Minister Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel for finding the time from his busy schedule for this book launch ceremony. Shri Bhupendrabhai has a deep understanding of the real estate industry and the town planning sector. I am confident we will see revolutionary steps in these areas in the coming months. I would also like to thank Jit Kumar Gupta for letting me be a part of the book.”
“Urbanisation rates have accelerated due to population growth and economic expansion, but our cities are not planned or ready for this. There is a gap between planning and actual implementation on the ground due to lack of suitable micro land management tools. Land management is vital for the planned growth of cities. The town planning scheme system, which has been in force in Gujarat for over 100 years, is the best suited and effective self-financing land management tool in the current situation. The book talks about the success of the TP scheme mechanism, and I believe it will help readers gain a better understanding of development issues. It also suggests various options and solutions for addressing the issues,” Patel added.
The book brings out critical issues in sourcing land and suggests options for its optimum utilization. It reflects upon different aspects of land, its peculiarities, sourcing and utilization, and the practices that have been globally used to procure land for meeting growing urban needs. It also suggests various options for sourcing land including, making landowners partners in the urban development process by using the mechanism of land pooling and land distribution through town planning schemes, bartering raw agricultural land for developed land, among others. It talks about options for leveraging land to raise resources to make urban slum-free and land market effective, efficient, productive, and affordable for the majority of urban residents.
Suresh Kumar, former IAS officer and Chief Principal Secretary to Punjab Chief Minister, has written the book’s foreword. This is NK Patel’s second book. The first one, titled “Town Planning Scheme – A Tool for Making Planning Work for City Development” was released in February 2019.
