URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF JAIPUR

Abstract

Land is the foundation of all forms of activity. Land management is the process whereby the resources of land are put to good effect. It includes decision making and the implementation of the decisions about land. It also includes the process whereby the land resources are allocated over space and time according to the needs, aspirations and desires within the realms of technical, political, social, institutional, legal and administrative framework. Jaipur expanding at a very fast pace still does not has any proper planning legislation or land management model to guide the growth of the city. The present government initiatives to develop Jaipur as a world class city without any defined model for land development and management has led to huge distortions in land market. Land values have sky rocketed along with large scale conversion of agricultural land to undeveloped and unplanned residential areas. The major problems being faced are seen in a continuous increase of land prices leading to land speculation, scarcity of developed urban land particularly for housing, and proliferation of slums and extra legal settlements with little or no infrastructure services. The study has been conducted to analyze the situation of land management and its outcome in a developing metropolis and to compare it with the successful land management model being practiced in different cities of India. The term land management in the study includes all the techniques of land assembly, development and disposal for a metropolitan city. The study also identifies the main problem areas and presents innovative solutions where such can be found. The study is limited to the selected pocket areas of the city for the study of the general problems related to land management and for the study of urban land policies the whole of city is considered. Final outcome of the study is in terms of recommendations for a suitable land management model in order to make developed land available parallel to the development of metropolis. The recommendations are for the selected pocket areas at micro level as well as for the urban land policies at macro level, i.e., city level.