All You Need To Know About Haryana's New Integrated Licensing Policy

While announcing a New Integrated Licensing Policy (NILP) for high-potential urban areas late last year, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had termed it as a game changer. Later, many urban development experts drew a parallel between Delhi's land-pooling policy and the new policy in Haryana, and concluded that the latter was far better. The policy was expected to change the way land acquisition is done in the state, by making it profitable for all stakeholders.

PropGuide takes a look at the key features of the policy and how it will change urban areas to be developed in Haryana:

TDR: The policy has broad-based the concept of transferable development rights (TDRs). Under this, a land owner with 25 acres of land or more gets a TDR certificate for providing his land to a developer. The new policy has reduced the limit from 100 acres to 25 acres. The land owner can sell the TDRs at prevailing market rates. 

Floor area ratio: Earlier, the government allowed a floor area ratio (FAR) of 1.0 for projects spread over 25-50 acres while the FAR for projects over more than 50 acres of land land was capped at 1.5. If a developer buys TDRs from a land owner, the FAR increases to 1.25 (25-50 acres) and 1.50 (above 50 acres). In a notification issued on December 5, however, the Haryana Department of Town & Country Planning (DTCP) said developers will be allowed 1.25 FAR with a provision to buy additional FAR of 0.25 irrespective of the area, by paying 5/7^th of the corresponding rates notified for group housing colonies. 

Population density: The population density has been fixed at 300 people per acre of land. earlier, this was capped at 250 PPA.

Validity of TDRs: The TDR agreement that will be signed between a developer and a land owner will be valid for two years.

• Likely beneficiaries: The cities that will see development under the new policy include Gurgaon, Manesar, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Sohna, Sonepat, Kundli, Panipat and Panchkula, Kalka and Pinjore.

The benefits

• While Haryana has seen tremendous residential and commercial real estate activity in the past decade, land acquisition has remained a concern. Several projects in the state hit a roadblock due to protest over land acquisition. The new town development policy that is beneficial for all parties concerned can act as a model for other states.

• The policy will be specially beneficial for Gurgaon, where real estate is highly expensive, the population is constantly rising, and finding a house in the affordable segment is difficult. By lower project costs for developers, the new policy will reduce house prices for buyers, too.

• The TDR concept will make implementing public infrastructure projects much easier. Earlier, owners used to be reluctant to let go of their land as the monetary benefits for doing so were not very high. Many public projects across the country have been stalled because of this.