DRAFT

Promoting Greenfield Townships

1. Introduction
It is well documented and understood that India is one of the fastest growing economies in
the world along with being one of the most populated. The urban population of India is likely
to grow from 285.3 million in 2001 to 360 million in 2010, 410 million in 2015, 468 million
in 2020 and 533 million in 2025, as per the projections based on past trends. Furthermore,
the share of agriculture in the total workforce has shown considerable decline to 57% from
60% in 1993-94. The share of primary sector is likely to decline further to 37% by 2030. This
means a large number of rural workforce will migrate to urban areas in search of jobs in the
secondary and tertiary sector. It is important for them to have access to employment, shelter
and related services and facilities failing which they will contribute to mushrooming growth
of slums and substandard habitat.

The sheer growth of the economy combined with rapid urbanization of the population has
created conditions that lead to a housing price rise. Urbanization of this scale needs to be
supported by adequate living conditions and the time is right to take meaningful steps to
evolve a policy which addresses and channels this growth in the right direction.

This document on promoting Greenfield Townships introduces and outlines the policy of
developing a State of Art Residential Zone (SRZ) as a viable solution to tackle the
compounding problem of mixed and affordable housing on a pan-India basis.

A State of Art Residential Zone (SRZ) is a notified geographical area that is free of
domestic taxes, levies and duties (both for the creation of, operation and maintenance
of the SRZ) with special development rules to promote large scale, greenfield,
affordable housing projects for the countrys masses. The SRZ may have a
prescribed minimum number of dwelling units with a maximum prescribed size, and
each SRZ would require adequate social infrastructure including schools, medical
facilities etc.
Put simply, a SRZ is a unique Zone which contains catchments of residential properties
which have been accorded fiscal benefits in order to bring down the cost of housing and
create a massive deliberate Urban Agglomeration that services the local commercial
activity and vice versa. The key idea is to create an interdependent living system which
is not only self-sufficient but also has the potential to grow and inject growth into
geographical areas around the SRZ.
The components of SRZ are
Affordable Housing Bringing good quality low cost greenfield housing to the mass market supported by a
sustainable living infrastructure with integrated schools, medical facilities, play grounds
etc with Income to Dwelling Unit Ratio not more than 1:4 through optimising responsive
space standards, specifications and technology.

Uniform Infrastructure & Housing Plan The SRZ would bring housing activities under
one umbrella leading to better organization and implementation.
Employment & Per Capita Income | Massive employment generation in and around the
SRZ leading to an improvement in the per-capita income and the GDP In addition, various
forward and backward linkages will create additional employment opportunities
Economic Growth of the region | a large concentration of population would generate allied
benefits with business activity rapidly proliferating around the peripheral areas of the SRZ. It
also provides opportunity for home based activities.
Controlling Slum Population | Presenting Slum residents with an option of affordable
housing
Planned Urban Development | Systematic Urban Agglomeration instead of an Organic one
resulting in better redistribution of resources and upliftment of living standards
Lesser Time for Development | The time taken for sanctions and approvals may be reduced
significantly by genuine single window clearances leading to a faster rate for project
completion

While the basic purpose of an SEZ is to bring in economic prosperity to the region by
creating conditions that attract establishments to set up organized commercial micro markets
with waiver of various duties, exemptions from taxes, State and Central levies etc, they create
the right reward management systems which motivate investors, developers, State and
Central Governments as well as other beneficiaries to invest in land and contribute directly to
economic properties. The same may also be applied to SRZ in inducing, Thinking Globally
and Acting Locally. Further, the Government of India recognizes that knowledge based
activities will be the key economic drivers in the future. This includes IT and IT enabled
services such as Knowledge Process Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing. It also
includes emerging technology areas such as biotech, energy related research, financial
services, contract research and host of such other activities.

Most of these businesses are driven by global capital and therefore locational decisions are to
be taken by comparing the advantages of cities across the world. This means that for a
metropolitan region/city region to attract investments in these sectors, its cities have to
compete with similar city destinations across the world. The location of these businesses will
be governed largely by the availability of high quality built environment and services. The
Government needs to proactively facilitate the creation of such destinations in order to attract
high end investments and create jobs and business opportunities.

2.Key elements of the Policy

The key elements of the Township Policy are summarised here and detailed out in subsequent
sections.
2.1 Governments role and support
Government will primarily play the role of facilitator in implementing the Policy. The
Governments role is detailed out in the policy under the following six heads:
1. External Infrastructure - Power/Roads/Water
2. Land Purchase Support
3. Green Channel procedures
4. Special benefits
5. Rating of developers & projects
6. Monitoring Mechanisms
7. Macro level planning and regulation of development

2.2 Developers role and obligations

The developer plays a central role in the realization of the objectives of the Policy. While the
policy facilitates the development process and simplifies procedures, it also provides a
framework of norms to ensure that public policy objectives are met and high quality
townships are created. The developers role is detailed under the following six heads:
1. Town planning norms
2. Mitigation of vulnerability
3. On-site physical and social infrastructure norms
4. Disclosure Norms
5. Performance standards for operation and maintenance
6. Provision for informal service providers

2.3 The implementation framework

The framework for implementation of the Policy is designed for simplicity of operation while
geared for achieving public policy objectives as well as enabling high quality township
development. The implementation framework is detailed out in the policy under the
following nine heads:
1. Applicable area
2. Eligibility Criteria

Classification of Townships by use

1. Flagship Townships
2. Performance Standards
3. Disclosure norms
4. Procedures
5. Mechanism to ensure compliance
6. Institutional framework
7. Miscellaneous matters

3. The emerging need of the Greenfield Community

Knowledge based industries require high end commercial and residential built environment
along with high quality infrastructure. Since these sectors are manned by the young,
availability of good quality health services, educational institutions and modern entertainment
facilities will drive such development. Increasingly, it is becoming clearer, that these ventures
are looking for sustainable integrated townships of a size capable of supporting businesses
and homes, with adequate physical and social infrastructure. Yet, these should be compact
enough to enable high quality living environments where it is possible to walk-to-work, walk-
to-school and use public transport for other activities.

In the regional context, these townships must be well connected to other urban centers
through regional transport infrastructure such as airports, railways, and highways. The
townships must also have access to trunk infrastructure such as high-quality drinking water
and reliable power supply.

To attract investments in knowledge based economic activities in a manner that directly

benefits the state, there are several initiatives required. Greenfield Townships should take the
lead in promoting the development of integrated townships with high quality built
environment. Along with this, it is necessary to ensure that the townships so developed have
access to reliable trunk infrastructure. It is also important to attract high grade developers
with long term commitment through systems for rating their performance and to set
adequately high standards for them in terms of infrastructure provisioning and service
delivery. In order that such townships dont become future liabilities for the state, the
infrastructure should be designed such that it is zero impact in terms of waste management
and adequately self sufficient in terms of facilities for education, health and other aspects of
social welfare. To make infrastructure sustainable and to ensure its continued operation and
maintenance, new service sectors such as Facilities Management and Integrated Waste
Management need to be promoted. It is also important to ensure that these townships are
inclusive for the urban poor through norms for provision of Economically Weaker Section/
Low Income Group housing and integration of informal service providers.

4. Objectives of the Policy

4.1 To promote economic development

1. To enable the sector to meet the infrastructure needs of new sectors of economy
such as IT, ITES, Biotech, R & D Institutions and similar such outsourced
economic activities.
2. To facilitate creation of new livelihood and employment opportunities.
3. To promote growth of tourism, medical & educational infrastructure
4. To achieve habitats which are globally competitive and catalyze the overall
development of the state economy.

4.2 To facilitate the creation of efficient, equitable and sustainable new urban settlements

1. To facilitate the emergence of poly nucleated urban agglomerations by

encouraging creation of free standing towns, satellite towns etc.
2. To discourage unsustainable sprawl development.
3. To ensure creation of sustainable urban development by a strict adherence to a
high degree of risk mitigation measures
4. To promote socially integrated and heterogeneous communities that are
sensitive to the needs of the EWS/LIG and informal sector.
5. To achieve as far as practicable, a Zero Impact position in terms of its
environmental impact, by ensuring that the new townships have access to
requisite off site physical and social infrastructure, and have adequate on site
physical and social infrastructure along with appropriate operation and
maintenance mechanisms.
6. To achieve Zero Impact in terms of the loads generated on the regional level
physical infrastructure, by seeking to achieve self-reliant infrastructure.
7. To promote the emergence and growth of self sustaining pedestrian
communities that thrive in a walk to work, walk to school, walk to play
environment.

4.3 To facilitate public private partnerships in urban development

1. To promote and accelerate private sector participation in various categories of
infrastructure that supports urban development.
2. To facilitate the emergence of newer service sectors such as Integrated Waste
Management services (IWMS), Facility Management Services (FMS) etc.
3. To facilitate the participation of the government bodies that own substantial
assets in the form of urbanizable land and properties in Public Private
Partnership projects.
4.4 To facilitate capacity building in the private sector and in government for urban
development

1. To enable the market to get properly articulated and segmented into various
sectors such as Residential, Institutional, Commercial, Heritage property etc.
2. To ensure high quality of safety standards and hazard preparedness in strict
compliance with the relevant IS codes.
3. To ensure professional monitoring of quality and compliance by peer review
and third party supervision.
4. To provide differential levels of facilitation and self certification on the basis
of such professional rating.
5. To strengthen the capacity of government agencies to ensure able supervision
of the compliance of the policy.
6. To create a single point agency of the State Government to implement the
policy.
5. POLICY
Consistent with the overall approach of Government to be a facilitator rather than be a
provider, it is proposed that the development of integrated townships be done through private
market initiatives. The Governments role will be to support and facilitate market operations
and regulating it only to the extent required to realise public policy objectives.
It is recognized that only a mature township, well supported by government can respond
effectively to the demand for high quality built environment .The first and most important
support is the provision of reliable trunk infrastructure (road, water and power) at reasonable
cost in a predictable and reasonable timeframe up to the threshold of the township. The
Policy aims to provide a framework for ensuring that this happens in an efficient manner in
predefined areas for township development.
It is equally important to ensure fast clearances for a variety of regulatory regimes ranging
from land related clearances and building/ development permissions to environmental
clearances. The Policy, thus responds to this by creating a Green Channel for fast clearances
through third party verifications and/or self certification by high-rated developers.

While most developers would be willing to pay the market price for the land, they would
need some government support for purchasing land in bulk. Domestic developers would be
able to do most of the land purchase themselves, but would need support to purchase the
parcels that are left out at the end of the process of putting together a stretch of land big
enough to support an integrated township. Foreign investors on the other hand, may be averse
to undertake retail purchase of land and may look to the government or to local partners for
providing ready-to-build large plots.

There are many specific sectors of the economy such as education, health and tourism, which
are of strategic importance in supporting knowledge based economic activities. However,
these need higher levels of support to get established. This higher order support includes
additional private land being procured preferably by negotiated purchase or unlocking urban
land values of Government holdings as well as incentives such as exclusivity to offset
entrepreneurial risk in the case of tourism ventures.
Governments regulatory role will be limited to the realization of public objectives; to fulfil
the objective of employment generation, norms for minimum allocation of built-up area for
economic activity area are required. The quality of the living environment needs to be
ensured by adopting town planning norms providing for adequate open space, road network,
 density norms, and quality of building construction along with provisions for future
expansion.

To ensure that the residents and businesses are adequately served and the townships are zero-
impact, re-cycling norms are required that necessitate high quality capital infrastructure and
performance criteria for continued delivery of the required level of services. To protect the
interests of the consumers buying property in the townships and to enable monitoring by the
authorities, a high level of transparency needs to be established in property transactions, town
planning and building construction clearances and levels of infrastructure service delivery.
This can be accomplished by setting norms for compulsory disclosure of such information by
developers. All the above are achievable by ensuring that developers with good track record
and quality management systems are encouraged to participate in township development.
This strategic objective is sought to be accomplished by a rating system for developers and
their projects, the long term effect being an ongoing process of streamlining the industry.

6 .Guidelines to promote Green field Townships

It is pertinent to note that the concessions of various exemptions of direct & indirect taxes
and duties will be cost neutral for the EWS and LIG categories, as the needs of this huge
section of urban India that needs affordable housing is currently under addressed.
Since SRZs are primarily SEZs applied to a different sector, most administrative laws
pertaining to the functioning of SEZs would remain the same.
1. SRZ to contain low sized units (typically in the range of 55-75 sqm)
2. Have a minimum threshold on the number of units to be developed ( typically 20,000 DUs
ie 1 lakh population)
3. Initially, the administration of the SRZ would be managed and monitored by the
Development Commissioners after the approvals are recommended by the respective State
and cleared by the Board of Approvals at the Centre.
4. The funds of JNNURM may be used for transport connectivity the SRZs with the nearest
urban agglomeration
5. They may have buildings with an FSI relevant to the infrastructure standards as stipulated
and will have planned support infrastructure (community halls, gardens / play parks, health
centers, education, shopping, etc).
6. They will have effective measures & rules to prevent malpractices/ misuse of SRZ
benefits. The following list is though indicative and not exhaustive.
An individual can buy only one dwelling unit.
Average size of units should be having a three bedroom house
Combination of two units/flats not be permitted
Tax/Duty free materials brought for consumption specifically in SRZs should not be
diverted to other locations or use.

7. Location

Greenfield townships should generally be located on comparatively degraded or barren land

excluding prime agricultural areas growing more than one crop with the help of assured
irrigation and located at a reasonable distance from medium or large existing town.....

...Further, it is also important to develop mass rapid transport corridors between existing
medium and large towns and new green-field townships so that the relationship between
industry and commerce is developed to an optimum level...
Access to airports/ railways/ highways availability of reliable water, power, institutions of
higher learning, specialty hospitals and such other facilities being the prime pre-requisites,
it is imperative that development be encouraged in areas where such facilities are available
or may easily be established. This will enable provision of trunk infrastructure at optimal
cost and optimal utilization of available infrastructure; the two sides of the same coin. The
proposed strategy for development may also promote the already fast growing urban
corridors with their extensions. There may be many growth nodes as well, emerging around
various industrial clusters and regional infrastructure facilities that they may be linked with.
Further, the periphery of existing urban centers is another category of suitable location. The
Policy should apply in a prioritized and phased manner to these areas, along with
concomitant development of trunk infrastructure.

8. Government support through the Policy

In response to the perceived needs of the industry and the imperatives of public policy, the
Government may provide support for primarily five (5) types of activities.
(1) Provision of trunk infrastructure in the areas where the policy will apply in a phased
manner. This will be undertaken through para-statals / agencies companies of the Government
such as Urban Development, State Road Development, Water Board, and the Power
Distribution Companies for various regions. The provision of infrastructure will be on a cost-
plus basis with long term contracts and minimum consumption criteria.
(2) Land Assembly. Government support will be provided for procurement of parcels that are
left out at the end of the process of putting together a stretch of land big enough to support an
integrated township. The maximum extent of this facilitation will be determined on the basis
of public policy objectives and the rating of the developer. In the case of townships for
education and health infrastructure, a higher degree of facilitation will be extended.

(3) Establishment of a Green Channel for statutory clearances related to land, development
permissions, environmental clearances and such others. This will be accomplished through
simplified regulations and procedures, third party verification and self certification methods.
The level of Green Channel support will be linked to the rating of developers.

(4) Special benefits under the policy e.g. giving exclusivity to tourism projects to offset
entrepreneurial risk through a buffer zone for green-field projects and higher land
procurement support for education and health infrastructure townships. Another special
benefit is provision to allow clusters of townships of similar nature. These clusters can then
comply with infrastructure norms as a cluster rather than independently.

(5)System for rating of developers and projects to be mandated by the government. The
rating of a developer will determine the level of support and degree of flexibility offered to a
developer.

Government will prepare and implement Master Plans for the areas to be covered by the
Policy to ensure that while Integrated Township Development happens in these locations,
there is no haphazard development in the surrounding areas. The periphery of Township
Policy applicable areas will be kept under strict Green Zone controls.

Finally the Government will establish a mechanism for monitoring the township development
process to ensure compliance with all the norms under the policy before handing over control
to the elected Local Body at a later stage.
 9. Master Plan for Township Area

Master Plan for areas proposed under this Policy will be notified under respective section of
Town Planning & Urban Development Acts as a Special Development.

All areas notified for accelerated growth under the policy will be subject to following
procedure

(a) Master Plan will be prepared.

(b) Master Plan will include an Infrastructure Plan to support the higher intensities of use
of land in the delineated area.
(c) Where deemed appropriate and viewing the nature of development, Government may
notify any delineated area or any part thereof to be a notified area.

A Committee to be constituted to carry out the following functions:

1) Issue instructions; pass rules & regulations, Specifications, etc.

2) Adopt and apply various types of norms to regulate the following:
0
a. Town Planning & Developmental Control
b. Urban Design Guidelines
c. Infrastructure Norms
d. Rating Mechanism & Monitoring Norms
e. Disclosure Norms
f. Norms for Facilities Management Services
g. Performance Standards
h. Principles & Procedures for Self-Certification
i. Norms & Rules for Buffer Zones & and Clusterization
j. Norms for O&M
k. Norms for Informal Service Providers
l. Norms for Public Private Partnership
m. On any other matter, connected, incidental or otherwise
n. To make any alteration, issue clarification or incorporate any other residual matter in
the Policy

Sources:
1. NCRPB: Formulation of a Development Strategy and Action Plan of a New Town
Global City on NH-8 in Rajasthan Sub Region
2. Gujarat Integrated Township Policy, 2007; Urban Development and Housing
Department, Government of Gujarat
3. National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy,2007; Government of India, Ministry of
Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, New Delhi
4. Government of Maharashtra, UD Department, Notification no No. TPS. 1202/259/CR-
24/03/UD-12.-
5. Chairman CREDAI and CMD, Gera Developments Pvt. Ltd, Special Residential
Zones