THANE: Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday said that Thane district will soon have an additional collectorate and two new tehsildar offices to improve administrative efficiency and strengthen property-related services for residents.Speaking at the ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Maharajswa Samadhan Shivir’, Bawankule said the state government’s revenue outreach campaign had benefited thousands of families in the district.“Under the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Maharajswa Abhiyan, through solution camps, we have succeeded in extending direct benefits of government welfare schemes to 76,000 families in Thane district,” an official release quoted Bawankule as saying.The minister said the government had approved several important land-related decisions, including free land for an Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) and a multi-modal hub in the Kalyan-Ambernath region, besides land required for projects linked to Vadhavan Port.According to the release, land has also been allotted for a government medical college and a Navodaya Vidyalaya in Ambernath, an MTP plant and a coastal road project in Mira-Bhayander spread over 25 acres, 73.73 acres for mangrove conservation, and sites for convention centres and BSNL towers in Thane.Bawankule said the requirement for Non-Agricultural (NA) permission has been completely removed, while the Fragmentation Act (Tukdebandi) has been withdrawn.He said the move would give legal ownership rights to around one lakh families living on small plots with houses built before October 15, 2023. Residential structures built on government land before January 1, 2011, will also be regularised and granted ownership titles.“The state government will pass the historical ‘Land Titling Act’ in the upcoming December legislative session, granting property cards equipped with digital chips to flat owners. This will ensure land measurement, registration, and mutation processes are completed in a transparent manner within 15 days,” the release quoted Bawankule as saying.In his introductory address, Thane Collector Shrikrishna Panchal said the campaign covered all 18 Assembly constituencies in the district. He added that it ensured the distribution of 7/12 land records to tribal beneficiaries and implemented the free sand distribution scheme.
