An Explainer: Land Bank

Land is one of the most valuable assets that authorities, corporations or individuals possess alike. Not only does this immovable asset ensures long-term financial security but also is the best investment option irrespective of who the owner could be. It is this nature of this asset that leads to the creation of land bank among authorities and corporations. Governments across the world acquire land from locals and use it for industrial and business purposes. Apart from using this land bank to set up government-controlled units, industrial or otherwise, authorities also sell land from their bank to private players for various purposes. In fact, governments earn a great part of their revenue through the auction of such land parcels. In today's times when land acquisition has become one of the most time-taking and difficult task for government as well as private parties, land banks come handy to initiate development projects. 

In India, land acquisition issues have been the key reason behind delay and scrapping of several large-scale projects. This is why the government is now eyeing to acquire the land lying idle with ailing and defunct public sector undertakings (PSUs) to use it for better purposes. If the government is able to successfully do so and create a large land bank, industries will find it more and more easy to start large-scale projects.