SANJEEV KATHURIA, Founder & CEO, Torbit Consulting

Over the past one decade, massive agricultural land acquisition has been done for the purpose of building industrial and social infrastructure. As this development will take about two decades to take a final shape, the government would put further land acquisition on hold till there is a visible development on the ground. This would mean agricultural land hoarding taking a long pause. Further, outrageous prices of agricultural land have put a question mark over productive/profitable use of land. This has a clear note of caution for the investors.

Real Estate is all about land from start to end. Barren land has no value. The value is built only when we assign usage to the land. Agriculture use of land is one basic need for humanity. Over the years, cultivation of land has been producing food for living besides generating employment. However, land use change became a necessity for industrialization and infrastructure development to fuel the economy by generating mass employment- further leading to development of social infrastructure i.e neighbourhood retail, shopping malls, hospitals and schools.

With the growth of population, the need of the entire cycle of economy fuelled massive acquisition of land parcels by the government, designating proper usage to the land parcels. The agriculture land parcels began to deplete, giving way to urbanization and change of land use (CLU) became a big thing. The government would draft a masterplan and investors would try to source it before it got notified to place large bets on it.

The government policies together with master planning, paved a structured way of converting agriculture land to industrial residential, commercial uses. In the present times, Modi government launched “Make in India” programme, with a clear emphasis on giving economy a boost by virtue of fuelling the large-scale manufacturing. Massive industrial parks and industrial townships have been proposed by the central government. The state governments have been organizing Parvasi Bharat shows and investment meets, offering incentives by way of PLI and other benefits.

Inorder to give a boost to industrial infra to support ‘Make in India’ programme, the government acquired large land parcels over the past 10 years. All-In-all, this period saw massive agriculture land acquisitions for the purpose of infrastructure development, industrialization and social requirements. The process of setting up industry and developing   physical and social infra is a long-drawn process. It will take 15-20 years to see this development take final shape. The government would want to see on-ground results before undertaking further land acquisition, meaning thereby that hoarding of agriculture land will take a long pause.

To me the agriculture land prices have become so absurd that no usage can make this land productive. Let the sense prevail in realty. Investors be careful!ad