Karnataka removes land conversion requirement in GBA

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government announced Saturday that it has done away with the cumbersome land-conversion process in the Greater Bengaluru Area (GBA) which has a comprehensive development plan (CDP).

“Landowners, who are developers, can now directly apply for plan approval as per the master plan, and land conversion will be carried out automatically as part of the plan approval process,” Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said.

Agricultural lands covered by a master plan required conversion for non-agricultural use. “This process typically took 4–6 months and often led to delays, harassment, corruption, and increased costs due to middlemen,” Gowda said.

“These inefficiencies ultimately burdened site buyers and brought disrepute to the government,” Gowda said.

Recently, the government did away with the need for conversion of farmlands for renewable energy projects.

The auto-conversion feature has been introduced “to promote planned development and improve ease of doing business,” the minister said.

“By integrating auto-conversion with e-Khatha and digitised land records, the government aims to reduce litigation and provide greater certainty in property ownership,” he said.

Gowda said the auto-conversion initiative “is a bold and transformative reform that simplifies one of the most complex and corruption-prone processes in land development.”

A to B Khata

As per the master plan provisions, conversion from ‘B’ khata to ‘A’ khata for existing individual property owners is also now enabled by law, bringing significant relief to lakhs of site owners, Gowda said.

“The enabling provision for auto-conversion provides a legal framework to convert ‘B’ khata to ‘A’ khata. “Obtaining ‘A’ khata strengthens legal ownership, enables access to bank loans, increases property value, simplifies transactions and approvals,” Gowda said.