Noida authority to rope in consultant for land acquisition to develop satellite town

NOIDA: On the lines of the development agencies in Punjab, the Noida Authority has decided to rope in a consultant to speed up the tedious land acquisition process in 80 villages for developing a satellite town.

The private agency, which will act as the land acquisition facilitating consultant (LAFC), will be also assigned the work of regularising the village abadi land and identify individuals responsible for encroachments, infringement and deviations of the building rules and regulations, officials said.

Though the Land Acquisition Act was framed in January 2014 and amended to accommodate the demands of land owners, the agencies requiring land are supposed to cover several milestones before getting possession of the same.

“We have our own land acquisition wing, but the staff strength is not adequate to handle the additional quantum of work. There is a need to accelerate the acquisition process by outsourcing the work,” said Authority OSD Avinash Tripathi.

Officials said they had studied the approach of the Punjab government and the procedure it followed while establishing industrial cities such as Mohali. The housing and urban development agencies of Punjab had roped in LAFC as early as 2011-12 to expedite the acquisition process.

Closer home, the Greater Noida Authority, earlier this year, had tied up with a private consultant to assist it in the land acquisition work. The Authority has managed to acquire land at a faster pace, aggregating 450 hectares so far during 2021.

The Noida Authority has broadened the scope of work while looking for LAFC. A mandate under the new act, the agency will carry out the social impact assessment to find out the status of the affected population. Verification of each and every khasra number with the revenue records and super-imposition of existing situations on the ground with the old records will also have to be done.

The Authority has to take over 20,900 hectare of land in the 80 villages over the years. Tripathi said the agency would be required to acquire the land, measure it, purchase it, demarcate it and hand over the land to the Authority after fulfilling the mutation process. “We will provide whatever support is needed during the course of end-to-end work,” he added.

Besides the agency will also have to regularise the existing village abadi land. Reconciliation will be done as per the satellite imagery captured by the Authority during 2011. Action will be taken or compounding will be done as per the norms against erring plot owners, officials said.