E-Urban Land Management as Business for Umami

Abstract

An organised and efficient e-land management ensures full participation of citizen and various governmental agencies in the activity of urban land management and can play a large role in making a smart economy. Umami is a ‘smart city’ created within Kozhikode with a smart economy that markets the foods of Kozhikode. The spatial location of Umami mainly comprises of a food processing zone and allied living areas. The idea of e-land management is practiced and found successful in many cities worldwide, but such an idea is conceptualised for the first time in Kerala through this chapter. Little management beyond acquisitions and few not so successful land pooling and readjustment are seen in Kozhikode. Master planning approach and lack of transparency and hence inefficiency and corruption are the cause of failed land management in the city. The Kerala Town and Country Planning Act 2016 is a welcome gesture to the unused potential of land markets in Kozhikode. Recognising the strengths of urban land, it welcomes a variety of land management practices found successful in other states of India, yet to be applied in Kerala. It is realised through the successful and failed land management cases in the history of the state that public participation and transparency are two buzzwords for a success story. E-land management through a website opens up the land market for the participation of citizen and ensures transparency in the process. Opening up of the land market implies that a website provides information and opportunity to all citizens to financially benefit by opting land management of their holdings. This is illustrated in this chapter by an exploratory study of the smart city of Umami in Kozhikode. Firstly, a zonal plan is prepared for Umami considering the principles and needs of a smart city. E-land management is the method to achieve that zonal plan. The various land management tools permitted in Kerala are identified and studied. Depending on the tools, areas are identified for each tool. The opportunity for public participation is created through the website. Monetary benefit of taking part in e-land management is informed to the public, hence giving them the freedom to decide, but also in a way moulding public decision to the interest of the zonal plan. This ensures that no decision is forced on the public, but what public decides for them happens in a way the zonal plan expects and hence direct towards a smart economy. The objective of this chapter is to showcase the e-land management website which makes land management market-driven and successful, hence a process in a ‘smart economy’.