The Encroachment Ecosystem
Over eight months of investigation, Sandesh’s reporting team — led by Senior Correspondent Suketu Shah — pieced together the workings of a systematic and surprisingly well-organised scheme through which a section of Ahmedabad’s real estate development community has been profiting from the city’s encroachment crisis, rather than simply suffering from it.
How the Scheme Works
The scheme operates in three distinct phases:
Phase One: Financing the Encroachment. In this phase, a developer — typically operating through a land acquisition agent or a series of intermediaries — provides financial backing to individuals who establish informal settlements or commercial encroachments on government land. The financing covers construction materials, labour costs, and sometimes even the payment of bribes to local municipal staff to delay action. The developer is not visibly associated with the encroachment at this stage.
Phase Two: Waiting for Regularisation. Under various government schemes — including the Gujarat Regularisation of Unauthorised Development Act — encroachments that meet certain criteria of age and completeness can apply for regularisation. The developer’s investment pays off when the encroachment is regularised, converting what was government land into titlable private property.
Phase Three: Acquisition and Development. Once regularised titles are issued, the developer — now visible — acquires the properties from the encroachers at a price significantly below market value (the encroachers, having received the developer’s financial support, are effectively contractually obliged to sell), and the land enters the formal real estate market for development.
The Evidence Base
Sandesh’s investigation is based on property records, regularisation applications, builder financials obtained through RTI, and interviews with encroachers in four localities who provided accounts of their interactions with the developers’ agents. In two localities, the same developer’s name appeared in the financing chain of encroachments across multiple plots that were subsequently consolidated into a single large development project.
The Regulatory Gap
The investigation revealed that existing law has no mechanism to deny regularisation on the grounds that the encroachment was commercially financed by a third party — only the encroacher’s personal circumstances are examined. This gap has been specifically highlighted in Sandesh’s reporting as requiring legislative attention.