Govt’s land ownership: Nine times size of Delhi

13,505 sq km at last count, final number expected to be higher

The government of India is finally getting some idea of how much land it owns. According to information provided to the Centre by 41 of the 51 Union ministries and 22 of over 300 public sector enterprises, the government owns at least 13,504 square km, with the number expected to rise as more data comes in.

A chunk of this land – about nine times the size of Delhi (1,483 sq km) – could be monetised or used for housing and other infrastructure projects, officials said.

The government started the process of making an inventory of its land last year. Details are being uploaded to the Government Land Information System (GLIS), a first-of-its-kind centralised database created by the ministry of electronics and information and monitored by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The GLIS portal records total area, geo-positioning maps, and details such as ownership rights.

According to the portal, the railways is the biggest landowner among Union ministries, and owns 31,063 land parcels spread over 2,929 sq km. On previous occasions, the ministry has given varying figures of the land it owns. “Though the track record of the railways, as well as other government agencies, on land asset management is poor, data uploaded on the GLIS portal is easily verifiable (because of the level of details provided),” said an official from the housing and urban affairs ministry.

The defence ministry, which owns a large share of the government’s land holding, has given only partial details citing security concerns. It has uploaded data about 383.62 sq km of its total land assets. In a 2010-11, a Comptroller and Auditor General report had pegged defence land holding at approximately 7,000 sq km.

In 2012, a committee headed by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar had recommended monetising the government’s unutilised and under-utilised land to finance infrastructure projects in urban areas. Some states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat have started raising funds by leasing out land to the private sector.

The move to make an inventory has been welcomed by experts, many of whom see it as a step towards better utilisation of government land.