Maharashta to do geo-mapping of properties

In a major land records reform process which will do away with instances of property buyers being cheated, ease property transactions and reduce litigations, the state government is planning to undertake geo-mapping and geo-referencing of urban properties. This will map the properties not just on paper on property cards, but also in real terms on the ground with geographical co-ordinates (akin to those seen on Google maps) being tied in and enable the state to move to a clear and guaranteed title of land ownership.

The problem has been compounded by the existence of multiple land registers like the department of land records, registration and stamps, and municipal bodies, whose data bases may not be linked with each other. This, combined with land prices shooting through the roof, leads to instances of property buyers being cheated in these transactions. The major weakness in the present system is that it only provides a paper with presumptive title of the land without any guarantee of the ownership, admit officials. The proposed system will ease things for both, large investors or industries and also home buyers and small investors by guaranteeing them a clear land title. It will ease the process of purchasing land by doing away with the need to approach experts and middlemen to check the records and title and also help map out individual flats or apartments in these records.

"We have digitized property cards, restructured them and made them available on our website. We are making mutations of land records available online. So, once there is a transaction at the sub-registar's office, it will be automatically recorded here," Sambhajirao Kadu Patil, Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records told dna, adding that this would reduce cases of land being sold to multiple parties. Maharashtra has around 55 lakh property cards.

He added that the "ultimate concept" and "vision" of the department was linking property records with municipal records. Kadu Patil noted that while they had a record of "horizontal properties" (land), the records of "vertical properties" (flats) constructed on it or their sale to others were not captured in their records. However, these details existed in the civic bodies for assessment purposes. "We are considering how the gap can be bridged. It is a challenge, but we are working on it," he added.

"The problem is that when people purchase a property or land, they just ensure an entry in the land records. There is no scientific geo-referencing of the site. We are trying to capture the geographical co-ordinates like the longitude and latitude in the property cards and tag it with universal co-ordinates," said a senior official from the department. "We will examine if this can be done in property cards. This will add an element of uniqueness to every property as buyers will be able to geo-reference it as compared to the present system which may be misleading," he added. Plus, there is no mapping of the sub-divisions on individual plots, unless it is registered, complicating things further.

The lacunae in the system also led to people being cheated and caused voluminous litigation. This geo-referencing may also make it possible for individual flats and apartments to be mapped out in properties with details of their purchase, sale and transactions. "In case the property has not been measured properly, it can be sold to multiple parties. If a plot has been sub-divided, there is confusion on the sale and purchase," the official noted.