TDR Guidelines for Implementing TDR Tools for Achieving Urban Infrastructure Transition in India NITI AAYOG September 2020

PREFACE

India acknowledges the role and importance of urbanization in the process of its economic growth and
social transformation. The urban landscape of the country is represented by more than 7000 cities /
towns of different population sizes, and a population of 377.16 million (Census of India, 2011), about
31 % of the total population of the country. The level of urbanization is bound to accelerate in coming
decades offering an opportunity as well as a challenge to meet the substantial infrastructural needs of
such transition. The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) often find it difficult to meet such investments given
their limited revenue base. Moreover, the process of land acquisition in urban areas for public purposes
such as road widening, provisions of schools, parks etc., is costly and time consuming.

The ULBs need innovative approaches for financing the development of urban services at the desired
pace. The most fundamental asset owned or managed by the States/ ULBs is land. The Ministry of
Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) had announced a ‘Value Capture Finance Policy Framework’
in 2017 in which the Transferable Development Rights’ (TDR) is one of the ten methods which can be
adopted by the Centre/ States / ULBs in their suitable schemes. The TDR method does not directly
raise huge revenues for ULBs/ planning authorities but supports in saving the costs required for
developing infrastructure.

Presently, this method is being used in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and other major cities in
India for various purposes like heritage conservation, lake and water bodies conservation, slum
improvement, development of public housing, road widening etc. This document presents a framework
for preparation of a TDR policy/ scheme which may be adopted as per the context by the States / ULBs
under the applicable Value Capture Financing (VCF) policy and the city- specific requirements.

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