The Urban Property Records Project of the Revenue Department of the Government of Karnataka, envisages establishment of a modern Property Record Management System in the cities of Karnataka using modern Information and Geographic Information System technologies. The Project is being executed on a Public Private Partnership basis

1. Urban Property Records (UPR) Project
1 Executive Summary
1.1 In the last few years while there has been a manifold increase in property prices in
Urban India, Urban land management practices have remained archaic. This is
despite the fact that property forms a large component of savings of most middle
class Indians. A McKinsey report published in 2001 had also indicated that
distortions in India’s land markets are a major barrier to economic expansion.
These out dated land management processes are leading to many illegal practices
affecting common citizens, financial institutions banks and also Government which
through its various agencies is the largest land owner.
1.2 The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) of Government of India proposes to
rectify these deficiencies by funding Municipalities for managing property records
and use GIS technologies for this purpose. However Municipalities are
fundamentally property tax collection agencies and not bodies for creation and
management of property records and do not have rigorous processes or legal
mandate for undertaking such complex property management functions. Further
just use of GIS technologies without a comprehensive property management
framework will lead to some unverified partial data being created in isolation
leading to huge waste of tax payers resources without any consequent benefits.
1.3 The Karnataka Survey and Settlement and Land Records (KSSLR) Department
has embarked on a systematic plan for creation of Urban Property Records in the
State commencing with 5 major towns of Karnataka. The KSSLR derives this
mandate of management of Urban Property records of the State from the
Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964, which comprehensively defines creation and
management of Urban property records through a due process of law.
1.4 Prior to commencing the Project, the department engaged in a pilot to test various
GIS technologies in a variety of field conditions. While the primary objective of the
pilot was to field test various technologies, an important learning that emerged was
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2. that the task of identifying properties and their corner boundary points was the
most important requirement for creating spatial property records. The Department
felt that this critical responsibility needs to be performed by Departmental officers
only.
1.5 The KSSLR department identified the various components for creation of property
records Management system. For the core area of creation of property records
involving collection of spatial survey and title enquiry, a vendor has been engaged
to support the Department and some tasks outsourced to it. To enable the
Department to fulfill its role, a Project Management Unit comprising of senior
officers of the department has been created and further 137 surveyors have been
provided extensive training in modern methods of survey.
1.6 The tasks of creating the software solution for management of the database of
property records and creation and management of citizen centres have been
outsourced to Private Partners. The Project envisages linkages of the property
records system with databases of Urban Local bodies, Revenue Department and
Registration department to enable seamless management of property data as well
as property transactions
1.7 Normally such activities like creation and maintenance of property records are
thought of as sovereign functions of the Government, but the UPOR project is
being outsourced on a PPP basis. A business model for the UPOR project has
been devised involving delivering of property record services and charging user
fees. Both work packages for various types of outsourced partners and the
revenue sharing arrangements have been innovatively structured.
1.8 The execution of the Urban Property records on a PPP basis has bolstered the
capabilities of the SSLR Department and will enable delivery of these services in
an efficient and citizen friendly manner. As is well known in such PPP projects,
The Private partner brings manpower and technical capabilities and is incentivized
to implement the project efficiently in a time bound and citizen friendly manner.
The project outcome is enhanced as the work area of SSLR department is
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3. confined to discharging its core regulatory responsibilities and supporting the
project implementation through its areas of expertise.
2 Project Background
2.1 Accurate and well maintained land records are of great importance to a smoothly
functioning economic system as it enables faith in the transaction and a larger
number of people can participate in land related transactions. A McKinsey report
indicated that distortions in India’s land markets are a major barrier to economic
expansion (‘India: The Growth Imperative – Understanding the Barriers to Rapid
Growth and Employment Creation, McKinsey Global Institute, 2001). The
requirement for well maintained land records is more so in urban areas, where the
property prices are significantly high and urban economy comprises a very high
share of the Country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
2.2 In absence of property records, Citizens feel that the property tax records
maintained by the Municipal Corporations are in fact legal property records.
Further citizens feel satisfied about the authenticity of their rights on a property
based on the “Registered” property transaction document.
2.3 In Karnataka, as per the Karnataka Land Revenue (KLR) Act 1964, the
Department of Survey, Settlement and Land records (SSLR) is responsible for
management and maintenance of property records in Urban Areas. The KLR Act
provides a comprehensive framework to the Karnataka SSLR department for
creation and management of urban property records. Further the act provides a
due process of law and provisions for appeal for property owners who may be
aggrieved in the process of creation of property records.
2.4 The SSLR department continues to maintain urban property records in Bangalore,
Mysore and similar other 41 towns of Karnataka. However both due to paucity of
manpower and financial resources, the records in many of these towns have
become outdated and further property records for the new areas of the city have
not been created.
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4. 3 Modern Urban Property Records Management
3.1 Given that Urban Property records don’t exist any, there is a need to undertake a
survey of all properties both regarding their spatial dimensions and also the “rights
“that exist on any property. Further there should be an exercise to determine how
the present urban property has been derived from the original agricultural property.
3.2 Any initiative for undertaking spatial survey of Property records should leverage
modern Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology.
3.3 Once such a robust base data of urban property records is created, processes for
administration of property records needs to be instituted such that these property
records continue to remain current.
3.4 To manage such a modern urban property records system there is a need for
creation of a robust IT infrastructure for storage and management of the Property
records database.
3.5 Further Citizen Service centers need to be established for delivery of various
services related to Property Records like issue of property records, acceptance of
requests for mutations etc.
3.6 Establishment of a modern system of Urban Property Management system as
mentioned above is not cheap and may cost about for any city Rs. 200/- per
property parcel. Thus such a cost for a metropolitan city like Bangalore with about
20 lakh property parcels may amount to Rs. 40 Crore.
4 Urban Property Ownership Records Project of Karnataka
4.1 Karnataka SSLR department given its mandate to maintain and manage urban
properties initiated creation of property records for the entire state starting with the
five cities of Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Shimoga and Bellary.
4.2 There are many technologies to choose from for spatial data creation like ground
based survey using Electronic Total stations (ETS) or Digital Global Positioning
Systems (DGPS) or aerial survey techniques using Satellite based imagery. To
understand the appropriateness of each technology, the department initiated a
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5. pilot project in 4 smaller towns of the State that had different terrain conditions
where each of the above methodologies was tested. The results of the Pilot
showed the clear advantage of ground based survey techniques through use of
ETS and DGPS
4.3 While the pilot was implemented for field testing of technologies, it was found out
that for creation of accurate urban property records, both processes of
Identification of properties and further determination of the corner points of the
property was very important. This could be done accurately only by the officials of
the SSLR department and hence in the final project execution, the Department
decided to undertake these tasks to support the creation of property records.
4.4 Given the requirement of both funds as well as additional manpower for such an
exercise, the department felt that such an activity could be best executed under a
Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model Basis
4.5 The department felt that Vendors could be outsourced the following activities
1. Support the Department in creation of the base Urban property records data
through spatial survey and collection of documents from property owners
2. Create the IT Infrastructure for management of the property records,
3. Create and manage Citizen Service Centres and Create back offices for
processing of requests of Citizens regarding property records
4.6 The Vendors would need to invest for the above tasks and recover their
investment only through a share of the user charges for delivery of such services
to citizens
4.7 The Department would continue to discharge its core regulatory responsibility in
the implementation of project and would have the following roles
1. Identify properties and the corner point of properties for the task of creation of
spatial records
2. The KLR Act 1964 provides a due process for creation of property records
and for this project also the Department would follows the necessary
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6. processes including inter alia serve notices to property owners, conduct
enquiry on the property regarding, title and rights and trace ownership from
conversion of the property from the time it was agricultural land to its current
form as an urban property.
3. Approve any change to the property record
5 Reason for PPP model of UPOR Project
5.1 The Department decided to execute the Project on a PPP mode as the cost of
creation and management of property records in five towns would be about Rs. 18
Crore and the Department had funding of only Rs. 5 Crore for such an initiative.
Further such a project would need deployment of many types of skilled persons
and the Department internally did not have so many people on its rolls, nor could it
engage in such an elaborate recruitment exercise.
5.2 Further it was seen that mostly Government departments are not able to complete
the exercise of creation of property records for e.g. the Karnataka Urban
Development Department has initiated such an exercise, but despite expenditure
of few Crores, the project had not reached its desired objectives and is still in
progress.
5.3 Also from examples of Bangalore One, E-Seva, operation of Road Transport
Organisation (RTO) it has been seen that work involving delivery of public services
can be done in an efficient manner through a PPP model as the Vendor could be
held accountable for quality of Service and the Government Department can
execute its core regulatory responsibility.
5.4 The Bhoomi Project of Karnataka had also established that when property records
are easily accessible, the demand for both the property record and recording of
property transactions by citizens increases. Thus revenue streams from such
projects may be substantial leading to viability of such projects to be executed in a
PPP manner.
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7. 5.5 Service delivery projects such as Urban Property record projects need an upfront
investment but provide revenue streams from delivery of public services to
Citizens on a continuous basis. Thus support in creation of public service delivery
infrastructure and obtaining a share of the user charges would be a viable
business opportunity for the private sector.
5.6 Further the project outcomes and deliverables of the outsourced partners were
easy to define. Execution of such projects on PPP model provides some flexibility
to the Vendor to choose methodologies, leverage prior competencies etc and
RFPs for selection of vendors need to specify mainly outcomes and do not need to
prescribe very detailed specifications.
6 Urban Property Records project – Implementation modalities
6.1 As mentioned earlier in paragraph 3.5, the UPR project involved three separate
activities for Vendors
1. Support the Department in creation of the base urban property records data.
This work is normally executed by Survey companies
2. Create the IT Infrastructure including the Software solution for management
of the property records. This work is normally done by Software solution
companies
3. Create and manage Citizen Service Centres and Create back offices for
processing of requests of Citizens regarding property records. This work is
mainly done by IT service companies
6.2 There could be many ways of tendering out the above work for e.g. the entire work
could be given to only one entity or it could be parceled in three parts. Generally
Survey companies that would undertake spatial survey prefer to obtain payments
for work immediately and it was thought that they would not like to invest in a PPP
project. However it has been seen that IT companies had become comfortable
with PPP projects. Given this background, works under s no. 1 and S No.3 were
clubbed as one parcel. Another learning from the pilot was that manpower needed
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8. for survey was in short supply , hence it was decided to not to have only one firm
for the entire work of Survey and have at least 3 companies executing the work in
the five towns. Given the disparate nature of the work package for works
described in s no. 1 & 3 in para 6.1, consortium comprised of firms with
capabilities in Survey work and IT services were allowed to bid for this work
package.
6.3 It was decide to recover user charges from Citizens for a variety of Property record
related services like issue of property records, and various property record related
transactions. The user charges would be based on the type and value of
properties, though some concessions were given to property owners belonging to
economically weaker sections of the society.
6.4 It was decided to select the Vendors through a two stage tendering process. Firms
would be first shortlisted based on eligibility conditions of technical capability, prior
experience of related works and financial strength. Thereafter their technical bids
would be evaluated and firms shortlisted for the financial evaluation. In the
financial bid these firms would submit their expectation of the revenue share of the
various property related user charges. Such rates submitted by the bidders would
be harmonized to a single number to select the most competent bidder for the
various types of works.
6.5 An innovation in the financial bid submission process was to prescribe minimum
caps for revenue share of the bidders to prevent freak rates.
6.6 The Department also provided the funding available with it as viability gap funding
to both the types of Vendors.
7 Other preparatory efforts of the Department
7.1 In addition to initiating a pilot project as mentioned in Section 5, the Department
invested substantially in manpower development to enable it to discharge its
responsibilities and support the execution of the project by the Vendors.
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9. 7.2 A Project Monitoring Unit comprising of 4 competent and motivated 2nd level
officials of the department (Deputy Director of Land Records) was created within
the department both for formulation of the Project and for eventual execution of the
Project.
7.3 About 137 Surveyors of the Department were identified for execution of the
Project. The Department had previously bolstered the departmental training
institute in Mysore and these 137 surveyors were provided intensive training of
one month on modern survey techniques and title enquiry process. This team of
137 surveyors also executed the entire responsibility of creation of property
records for 4000 property records of Mysore to understand all aspects of the
activity to be executed under the project.
8 Current Status of UPOR project
8.1 The Vendor selection for the project was completed by November 2010 and the
various tasks envisaged under the project like survey of properties and creation of
the IT infrastructure has commenced.
8.2 The project underwent a setback for a period of one year as the Project champion
was transferred however with the re-instatement of the champion in January 2011,
the project is back on track
9 BENEFITS FROM UPOR PROJECT
9.1 The UPOR project is expected to yield substantial benefits to all stakeholders
1. The Property owners holding genuine titles to property will be assured of their
ownership
2. Prospective buyers of properties will be assured of the genuineness of the
property offered for sale and all encumbrances are systematically recorded
3. Banks will be sure of lending money against property. Consultation held by
Department with Banks & RBI showed that Banks were enthusiastic about the
Project
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10. 4. The Urban local bodies will have a comprehensive database of all properties
in their cities, which will aid their tax collection.
5. A project of this nature would also safeguard government land and urban
amenities like gardens, parks etc.
10 Learnings of the Project
10.1 The UPOR project demonstrated that execution of a project on a PPP mode is not
outsourcing of responsibility and the Department needs to discharge its core
regulatory responsibilities. Further it needs to augment its capacity to support the
execution of the project by vendors.
10.2 Creation and management of property records is thought as a sovereign function
of the Government but parts of such responsibility can be outsourced innovatively
in form of PPP projects.
10.3 PPP projects can thus augment the capabilities of the department and also
provide it with financial resources to execute projects
10.4 Outsourcing of such projects on PPP model needs to be done creatively regarding
allocation of works to various types of vendors and creation of the business model
for such vendors.
10.5 Leadership continues to remain important in execution of such innovative projects.
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