Financing Suburban Infrastructure Development : Illustrating the Potential of TPS Mechanism

Land mobilization for urban infrastructure development assumes greater importance in the wake of increasing pace of urbanization in India. The traditional approach of land acquisition using eminent domain legislation for urban infrastructure development has not been very successful. The Master Plan framework for infrastructure development, particularly in the sub-urban and peri-urban areas, has also been less effective as municipal bodies do not have adequate finances to meet with development costs (including land acquisition costs). Alternate instruments such as land pooling and plot readjustment methods can be used to aid the development of sub-urban infrastructure proposed under the Master Plans. The Town Planning Scheme (TPS) is a potential mechanism in that category which can be used for sub-urban infrastructure development by incentivizing individual land owners to part thei land. This paper discusses the experiences of harnessing the potential of TPS mechanism in acquiring land as well as financing the development of ring road development projects of Ahmedabad and Surat, which serve as very useful infrastructure projects for these cities