Land Pooling and Special Purpose Districts: A Working Paper on Pragmatic Urban Management Approach for Amaravati, the Greenfield Capital City of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Amaravati, a 217 Sq.km greenfield city, is being developed as the Capital for the recently bifurcated state of Andhra Pradesh in the Southern part of India. It is a much debated and probably the most ambitious Urban Development project ever undertaken in the History of modern India. Envisioned as ‘the People’s Capital’, for its daring feat of land pooling mechanism, with the participation of over 24,000 farmland-owners from 29 villages voluntarily submitting more than 34,000 acres of land for the development of this ambitious city, this project has had no other rival till date in the country. The manifest function of announcement of Amaravati City was the Conspicuous Consumption Behaviour of the Land Owners. The result was that these Land Owners, despite being provided with redistributed developed plots with higher intrinsic value, formed into local groups to create contrived land pricing market. This paper series delves into three critical issues, commonly resulting from such Land Re-distribution projects around the world, viz. Cartelization of Land-owners, Livelihood Transitions and Affordable ‘Affordability’. Each of the paper in this series is developed around bringing out one of the above critical issues and experientially structuring pragmatic proposals for the Landowner community, City Development Agencies and the Government at large in building an inclusive, affordable and participative Urban Development project. The current paper discusses ‘Cartelization of Land-owners’ and showcases, through fusion of ideas from cross-border experiential knowledge, an innovative arrangement for the Government and the Land-owners to converge towards mutual prosperity.