Srinagar, Sep 28, : Official data placed before the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly shows that 631 non-residents have purchased 386 kanals and 128 square feet of land in the Union Territory since 2019 for a total consideration of ₹129.97 crore, while a separate government-land transaction at Srinagar’s Sangarmal has brought a non-J&K company into a consortium awarded development rights over about 45 kanals on a full-lease basis for ₹421.75 crore.According to the Revenue Department data presented in the Assembly, 378 non-residents purchased 212 kanals, 13 marlas and 128 square feet in the Jammu region, while 253 purchased 173 kanals and seven marlas in Kashmir. The data covers transactions recorded after the 2019 changes in the legal framework governing land ownership in J&K.The year-wise figures show that one non-resident purchased one kanal in 2020 for ₹10.06 lakh. The number rose to 57 buyers in 2021, 127 in 2022, 119 in 2023, 169 in 2024 and 158 in 2025. The land purchased in 2025 alone measured 106 kanals, 11 marlas and 201 square feet, with a reported consideration of ₹37.17 crore.Around 350 of the 631 buyers were reported to be residents of Ladakh, which became a separate Union Territory in 2019. Other buyers identified in reporting on the government data came from places including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Jharkhand and Bihar. Eleven buyers from Delhi were reported to have purchased land in Kashmir, while only one buyer from West Bengal appeared in the lists.Most of the transactions were for relatively small parcels, but government-data reporting identified some substantially larger purchases in Srinagar. Delhi-based Luxury Resorts Pvt Ltd was reported to have acquired three parcels measuring 22 kanals, three kanals and six kanals at Chatterhama, taking the combined area to 31 kanals. Another buyer, identified as H.G. Chawla, was reported to have acquired 15 kanals at Harwan.The latest political debate over such transactions was triggered by Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari, who alleged that a Mumbai-based businessman identified by him as Chawla had been allowed to purchase land at Syedpora for a hotel project. He also alleged that a Delhi-based company had acquired 150 kanals at Chatterhama in the Hazratbal area. A separate and much larger transaction involves Sangarmal in Srinagar. About 45 kanals of Srinagar Development Authority land surrounding the Sangarmal City Centre were offered through an online forward-bidding process. The successful bid reached ₹421.75 crore, with Parmesh Construction Company Ltd emerging as the successful bidder in a consortium involving J&K-based Pahalgam Green Hotels and Bhutani Infra Ltd.The Sangarmal transaction is materially different from the private land purchases disclosed in the Assembly. The property was not sold outright; it was offered on a full-lease basis for development. Reports said the bid was opened on August 25 and closed in the early hours of August 26 after the price rose well above the government’s earlier expectations.The J&K Land Grants Rules, 2022 define a lease as an arrangement under which the lessor conveys the use and occupation of land for a specified purpose and period in return for consideration. The rules also recognize companies and other business entities as potential lessees. The rules were notified by the Revenue Department in December 2022.The Sangarmal bidding therefore represents a government-land lease transaction rather than an additional entry in the 631 private land-purchase figure. The winning consortium’s participation by Parmesh Construction has nevertheless brought the question of outside corporate participation in prime Srinagar commercial property into the current public debate.The auction attracted three reported bids, with Parmesh Construction narrowly ahead of the second-highest bidder, Construction Engineers, while Garuda Construction and Engineering Ltd was also in the race. The Sangarmal property is strategically located near the Kashmir Golf Course, Polo View and the Lal Chowk area.The Sangarmal complex, developed as a major commercial project, had remained substantially underutilised for years. Its commercial inventory included shops, Craft Bazaar spaces, kiosks, food courts, a restaurant and office spaces. The latest lease arrangement is intended to facilitate redevelopment of the surrounding land and revival of the stalled commercial project.Taken together, the available records show two distinct forms of outside participation in J&K’s land and property market: private purchases recorded by the Revenue Department and government-owned land being offered through lease-based commercial development. The available public data does not, however, provide a complete name-by-name list of all 631 non-resident purchasers or establish that every transaction was for commercial purposes. [KNT]
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