Malkapur becomes first small town in state to issue TDR certificates for acquiring land for public infrastructure

Kolhapur: The Malkapur Municipal Council in Satara district has become the first C-class urban civic body in the state to issue Transfer Development Right (TDR) certificates for acquiring land for public infrastructure. On Sunday, certificates were issued to six landowners for around 19,000 square feet of land.Municipal councils in the state are classified as A, B and C based on population, revenue and development level, with those under category A typically have more than one lakh population, while those in category B have population between 40,000 and 1 lakh. The municipal councils in group C have population up to 40,000 and those below C are primarily nagar panchayats.An event to was held in Malkapur on Sunday where TDR certificates were handed over to landowners in the presence of local BJP MLA Atul Bhosale. "Malkapur has become the first C-class municipal council in the state to issue TDRs, beginning with land acquisition for a Development Plan (DP) road aimed at easing traffic congestion." TDR, widely used in large municipal corporations, allows civic bodies to acquire land for public amenities without direct monetary expenditure. "These certificates can be sold to builders, who can use them to construct additional floors beyond the base permissible limits," an official said."The development plan for Malkapur was sanctioned in 2016. Due to rapid growth along the highway and proximity to Karad, we need to fast-track infrastructure development. Since land rates are relatively higher here compared to other C-class councils, we opted for TDR to make the process attractive for landowners. We have started with land reserved for DP roads," Kapil Jagtap, chief officer of the council, said.Malkapur, with a population of around 32,000 as per the 2011 Census, is located near Karad along the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway. The town has already achieved 24x7 drinking water supply with 100% water meter coverage.According to two planning experts, there is strong potential for TDR utilisation as Malkapur is encouraging vertical growth. Buildings up to 35 metres or 12 storeys are permitted. While the base FSI for the town is 1.4, developers can increase buildable area by purchasing TDR from landowners who surrender land for public infrastructure.