Ranchi Municipal Corporation launches drive to reclaim 500 encroached gift deed plots for green spaces and public utilities

Ranchi: The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has launched a massive drive to reclaim hundreds of encroached civic-owned land plots and transform them into public utilities and green spaces.Among the identified properties are approximately 500 small ‘gift deed’ plots, which developers are legally required to surrender to the municipal body under building bylaws to maintain designated road widths and provide public space along major thoroughfares.Municipal commissioner Sushant Gaurav said that these smaller land parcels will be converted into commuter sheds, transition points for passers-by, green patches, or parking areas.

“The first step will be to remove the encroachments and complete the mutation of these land pieces, followed by beautification and development,” he said.The initiative builds on the civic body’s recent infrastructure expansions. During the 2025 -26 financial year, RMC successfully developed 24 green patches and 19 new parking spaces across the city. For the current fiscal year, the corporation has increased its targets, aiming to establish 31 additional green patches and 28 new parking slots.

In addition to the smaller gift deed plots, RMC has identified 23 larger sites where plots exceeding 20 decimals were encroached upon over the years. The corporation plans to leverage these larger spaces to boost local economy and infrastructure.“We are still in the process of identifying more public property that has been encroached. We plan to construct shops on the bigger plots to generate employment in the city,” Gaurav added.Depending on the final area of the reclaimed lands, RMC intends to develop a variety of civic amenities, including auto, taxi and bus stands, libraries and sports stadiums. “We also have some mega renovation projects in the pipeline, which will be revealed once the blueprints are finalised. The ultimate objective behind this exercise is to free up RMC land and utilise it effectively for public convenience and city beautification,” Gaurav said.Parallelly, RMC has been conducting aggressive anti-encroachment drives across the city over the last one month to clear illegal structures from roadsides and public areas.