The Administrative Council approved the Land Pooling Policy and Transferable Development Rights Policy aimed at giving fillip to the Real Estate sector in J&K.The AC meeting was chaired by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha and attended by Advisor R.R Bhatnagar, Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo and Principal Secretary to LG, Mandeep Bhandari.
Under the land pooling policy, developers or private land owners shall come together to pool their land and obtain authorization for development.
While authorizing development, the concerned urban governance agencies shall keep sufficient land for development of infrastructure, wide roads, parks, open spaces and other amenities and the remaining land would be returned to the landowners which they would share proportionately among themselves.
The benefits of land pooling for various stakeholders would be that the value of land increases for the landowners and better infrastructure gets created as compared to the irregular land plots pooled by the landowners developing that land parcel. The proposed policy would be applicable to notified land parcels of 50 hectare or more.In another development, AC approved policy regarding Grant & Utilization of Transferable Development Rights.
Under this scheme, for the land surrendered by a land owner or a developer free-of-cost for public purposes such as road widening, public passage, for conservation, heritage and other infrastructure development, shall be granted a non-financial compensation in the form of a TDR certificate specifying the Built-Up Area (BUA) or Floor Area Ratio (FAR) given to a land owner or developer which he can utilize in remaining part of his property or build elsewhere and even monetize by selling TDR to any other developer or user in receiving areas..
This would allow developers to build over above the permissible Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for the land surrendered in congested areas. TDR policy is aimed to help accelerate implementation of Master Plan proposals and shall be initially implemented in the JDA and SDA jurisdiction.
Administrative Council also approved the proposal of Housing Department to engage National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) for fast tracking development of Srinagar Satellite Township at Rakh Gund Aksha Bemina where Srinagar Development Authority would be utilizing 3290 kanals of land parcel for construction of residential plots, group housing apartments besides constructing 3200 flats under affordable housing.
Satellite Township shall have commercial, government offices, green spaces, sports facility and a 200 key 5-star hotel and the entire project shall be completed in phases over a period of 5 years. The decision to engage NBCC for consultancy and as an executing agency was taken speed up pace of work. It may be recalled that High Court complex and Medicity are also coming up in the vicinity of the township.
J&K Govt approves additional subsidy for PM Surya Ghar Scheme
The Administrative Council, which met here under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, approved additional subsidy from UT budget for implementation of PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana in UT of J&K. The AC meeting was also attended by Advisor R.R Bhatnagar, Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo and Principal Secretary to LG Mandeep Bhandari.
Pertinently, the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana launched by PM Modi in February 2024, aims to install rooftop solar plants in one crore households across the country at subsidized prices by March 31, 2027, thereby providing up to 300 units of free electricity per month to these households.
As per the scheme, prospective beneficiaries are required to pay the full project cost upfront and the Central Financial Assistance (CFA) will be disbursed directly to the beneficiary’s designated account.As per the additional subsidy approved by the Administrative Council, for 1 kw with project cost of Rs. 55000 the subsidy has been increased to Rs 36000, for 2 kw with project cost of Rs 110000, subsidy has been increased to Rs 72000 and for 3 kw with project cost of Rs 159500 subsidy has been increased to Rs 94800.
The approval to proposed project will make the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana more attractive to the beneficiaries, who are predominantly from poor or lower-middle class category. This will foster self-reliance among subsidized consumers, aligning with current needs. Furthermore, it will enhance the share of Green Energy in day to day usage, thus decreasing the dependence on conventional energy.
In this regard, the Government has also provisioned loan facility from SBI at 7% interest rate and to give major push to the scheme, J&K Bank shall also be on-boarded for providing loans to make finance access easier to increase the scheme penetration. The scheme success would get impetus with completion of smart metering in the rural areas.
At this juncture, when energy billing practices are evolving fast, it is anticipated the PM-SGMBY will motivate the consumers to install SRT systems on their roofs to effectively reduce their household electricity costs. The provision for additional subsidy from under UT Capex shall have financial implication of Rs. 53.53 crore for targeted 87,000 consumers under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijili Scheme in J&K over a period of three years.
The Power Development Department shall also engage quality controller for conducting the 3rd party inspections of the Solar Roof Top systems.