The Uttarakhand government will soon build a land bank of 20,000 hectares 'benap (unmeasured)' land, the development of which was being hampered due to tough forest laws enacted during the British rule.

Last year, the ruling BJP in a cabinet decision had overturned the British government's notification of benap land under which a large area in the hill state was brought under the control of the forest department.

The decision to set up the land bank was taken at a high- level meeting chaired by chief secretary Subhash Kumar here yesterday, an official release said.

Kumar directed all the 13 district magistrates to identify such lands in their area and prepare a data. "Development works would get a fillip through this land bank. A total of 418 development projects were being hampered due to the tough forest laws," he said after the meeting.