Ghaziabad: Local development authorities will now clear land-use conversion applications for plots up to 6,000 sq metres within 112 days. The amended Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development (Assessment, Levy and Collection of Land Use Conversion Charge) Rules, notified by the state cabinet on Sept 15, set for the first time a timeline for disposal of land-use conversion proposals, which earlier involved multiple layers of scrutiny.Under the amended rules, technical scrutiny has to be completed within 22 days after an application is submitted. Property owners would get 60 days to respond to the queries raised after the technical valuation and submit papers.Thereafter, a six-member committee, headed by a development authority’s vice chairperson, will have 30 days to decide on the objections and suggestions to the changes proposed over the land parcel. The committee would also comprise the district magistrate and municipal commissioner or their nominated members, a member nominated by the divisional commissionerate and the chief town planner of the development authority.Once all the formalities are cleared and payment is made to allow land use change, final go-ahead would have to be granted within 15 days.The revised framework, officials said, seeks to cut procedural delays and simplify compliance requirements for land-use change applications and would greatly benefit developers. For developers, this could mean faster project launches, lower approval costs and greater predictability in timelines.The amendments to land-use conversion charge rules, which seek to improve ease of doing business, allow local development authority boards, like GDA, to change land use for plots up to 6,000 sqm, bypassing the state-level clearance previously required for such tracts and in many cases dragged on for months. They also halved land-use change and conversion fees to improve ease of doing business.“Land use change rates from industrial to residential will be 15% of the circle rate, to office use it will be 50% of the circle rate and to commercial 75% of the circle rate,” an official from the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) said.The new law also slashes interest rates on land-use change rates, when paid in instalments instead of a single upfront lump sum, to 1% per annum plus MCLR (marginal cost of funds-based lending rate) — the minimum interest rate that a bank is legally allowed to lend at — from 12% per annum, which was like an expensive commercial loan.Land-use conversion rate from agricultural to industrial has been revised to 15% of the circle rate instead of the earlier 20%. Land converted for residential uses will be charged 25% of the circle rate instead of the previous 50%, and institutional uses will be charged 50% of the circle rate instead of 100%.
