Land Resource Management in Guntur Municipal Corporation Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Financing urban infrastructure and financial sustainability of local governments are the two major concerns of present urban development and planning policy regimes in India. It is estimated that 40 percent of the total population in India will reside in urban areas by 2031 and municipalities with less than one million population play a key role by accommodating the maximum population between 2001 and 2031. Ensuring the minimum standards in these Small and Medium municipalities with basic services become important planning mandates and require special attention on fiscal stability, and also to help in realization of economic potentials. Despite the reported poor condition of municipal finances, the current policy regime is seeking to improve the efficiency, i.e., increase the share of own revenues by exploring alternative sources with a higher emphasis on land monetization. However, a clear methodological framework for assessing the potentials of public land assets and the efficiency of municipalities with land monetization is a research gap in India. As compared to other financing options, monetization of public land is within the functional domain of local governments and allows opportunities to realise value capture for productive urban infrastructure investments. In this respect, the research has made an attempt to assess the status of municipal finances and public land revenues of Small and Medium municipalities in Andhra Pradesh and based on the findings, a detailed investigation has been carried out for the study area, Guntur Municipal Corporation. Overall, this study aims to determine the status of public land ownership, identifies the control variables of public leasehold system, and the potentials of existing public lands through optimization method.(Read more see in abstract page)