Gujarat government will soon be introducing its e-Zameen project, which authenticates sale of immovable property and reduces time for registration of a sale deed, in the urban parts of the state soon.

Presently, the model is available only in the rural areas of the state.

"We would be switching over to implement the model of e-Zameen for transaction of immovable property in the urban areas too. This IT driven model was so far available for rural areas of the state," Gujarat Chief Secretary A K Joti said.

"For extending this model to urban localities, a database is being created through the city centric offices, functioning under the state's revenue department," he said.

The model was first introduced by the state in July last year as part of its e-governance project and all the rural areas got covered under it by March this year.

According to the state government estimates, close to two lakh mutations (a process post execution of a sale deed) for agricultural land take place annually, out of the total 10-12 lakh.

The model has reduced time for registration of a sale deed and has also got rid of the middlemen hanging around the offices of mamlatdars (block officers).

"We could do this project, because we have a centrally located database, which has all the data of the holdings of farmers of the state. It is unique, because through it, we have been able to do business process re-engineering," Joti said.

Under the e-Zameen project, the state government has created database of land holdings in electronic form, which can authenticate land deals intranet.

Consequently, the system performs major procedural formalities automatically, like mutation, which used to be earlier done on paper and hence, were time-consuming and cumbersome.

"With this model in place, the number of intermediaries, who used to hang around the offices of mamlatdar, misguiding people, has come down substantially," Joti said.

The time taken to register a sale deed has come down to around 15-20 minutes, while earlier, the time taken for this used to be around 2-3 months, he said, adding that time consumed to get a final copy of the registered sale deed was 3 to 4 months.

Gujarat is amongst one the few states, where rapid urbanisation is taking place.

"With 43 per cent population of the state in urban areas, Gujarat is one the few states where rapid urbanisation has taken place in last few decades," Joti said.

"Between 2001-2011 we have seen very rapid urbanisation," he said.