In the past two decades, land prices in cities have increased. As cities grow, this increase in land prices has made it difficult for city and state governments to acquire land to develop new areas to expand the city. In 2013, India’s century old land acquisition law was replaced by a new law that mandated higher prices for land acquisition by government. This change, combined with the growing value of urban land has sounded the death knell for compulsory land acquisition by government for urban growth. How are cities coping with this change? This talk will describe different policy variations governments in India have used to acquire land voluntarily rather than compulsorily in the past decade, and to identify the need for institutional changes in urban development bodies to cope with this shift.

The YouTube link for the event.