Pergamon PII: S0264-8377(96)00031-2 Land Use Poficy, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 81-97, 1997 © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0264-8377/97 $17.00 + 0.00 Plot acquisition for self-build housing Problems in Bhubaneswar City, India Krishna Chandra Rath and Jayant Kumar Routray The process of plot acquisition, develop- ment and construction of house is very complex in the private unserviced land market due to lack of information, high dependence on land brokers and inade- quate institutional arrangements for land development and plot sales. The case of Bhubaneswar City in Eastern India is used to highlight the issues connected with plot acquisition and house building and to explain the factors required to be strengthened in the overall context of planned development. Specifically the pattern of ownership, process of land subdivision, transaction, transfer, development and final use for house construction are looked at. The study suggests curbing land prices, and inten- sifying infrastructure and service facili- ties, and indicates the need for the revision of the existing planning regula- tions to streamline the control mechanism. © 1997 Elsevier Science Lid. The authors are with the Human Settle- ments Development Program, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, GPO Box 2754, Bangkok 10501, Thailand [Tel: (66-2) 524-5609; fax: (66-2) 524-6132; email: routray@rccsun.ait.ac.th]. Land is considered one of the most important assets for anybody. Avail- ability of land is the key issue for all kinds of activities, from agriculture to intensive urban development. A rapidly growing population with a changing occupational pattern is making land more and more scarce. In the present context of urban development in developing countries, many land issues have assumed greater importance and have thus generated a lot of studies and research, focused on urban land management dynamics. There is always a great gap between demand and supply of land in urban areas. The lack of organized urban land development practices, informa- tion systems, control mechanisms and clear policy guidelines, retards the overall development process. The urban sprawl and scattered development pattern, conflicting land use, squatter and slums, inadequate infrastructural network, land shortage and high land price are some of the consequences of poor land management practices most commonly observed in the old and also new planned urban centers and suburban areas around the cities of India. Misra very rightly observed that in the context of developing countries, shelter issues for the poor and the low income groups dominate, and therefore, very often, urban land management issues are viewed by the decision makers as a trade-off between welfare and development (Misra, 1990, p. 7). Although the governments of most Asian countries have adopted some form of statutory land use planning, together with land subdivision and building construction regulations, as measures to improve urban development and land use, very few governments have formulated explicit objectives and policy on the ownership and use of urban land so as to guide and coordinate their own land activities and involvements (Archer, 1992, p. 66). Indian cities are faced with the various challenges of providing an adequate supply of land at affordable prices. Urban land management in some of the Indian states has been highly influenced by the use of the plot reconstruction (PR) technique in town 81