LAND MEASUREMENT UNITS IN INDIA

On a scale of 1 to 10, how good are you with the real estate jargons in India? In a vast geographical country like India, everything from the land type to the unit of measurement varies and it will save you time to get a hold of them before venturing further.

While some of common units of measurement are used predominantly all over the world, terms vary when there are purchases made locally within India. This has been cited as a cause of concern from many buyers thus it is imperative to keep oneself updated with the terms. In this article, we hope to throw light on some of the most important units of measurement you need to acquaint yourself with.

The world wide commonly accepted land measurement units are given below. These are used in India too on a large scale.

Square foot (feet) (sq ft): This is the most commonly used unit of measurement in Indian urban housing market. As per the rule of Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA), builders have to use square feet as the standard benchmark for measuring apartment/flat sizes. It is measured in foots, along the length and the breadth of a square. Getting the right square feet measurement is important to get the size of the space.

Square yard: A square yard is 9 square feet.

Square metre (sqmt): A Square meter refers to 10.76 square feet.

Acre: One acre stands for 100 square meter and 43,560 square feet.

Hectare:  One hectare is equal to 100 acres and 10,000 squaremeter.

 There are the broadly used terms with respect of units of land measurement. But divulging into the other units associated with a  state is what we will be seeing from now.

NORTH EAST INDIA

1) The people of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Jharkand and Tripura measure land in “Dhur”. Again, this Dhur varies with size depending on the state.

Example: In Bihar, a Dhur amounts to 68 square feet of land while in Tripura, it refers to 3.6 square feet.

2) In the states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, “Kattha” is used. This is again, used to denote different values as per the state but it broadly ranges from 600 to 2,800 square feet.

3) People of West Bengal measure land in “Chatak”. Here, one Chatak refers to 180 square feet.

4) Another unit of measurement in Assam is “Lecha” where one lecha equals 144 square feet.

NORTH INDIA

1) In the states of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, people use “Gaj” which denotes one square yard or 9 square feet.

2) Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand also use “Bigha”. And here too, it is important to note that a measure of Bigha varies from state to state. But the approximate unit of 4-6 bighas makes up for an acre of land.

3) “Biswa” is a unit of measurement widely used in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. One biswa could be anywhere from 50 to 150 square yards but it varies from one state to another.

4) “Biswani”is commonly used in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where 20 biswanis make up for one biswa. But the individual value of one biswani differs for different states.

5) “Killa”is used to denote an acre of land in Punjab and Haryana.

6) Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab use “Kanals” where one 8 kanals made up for an acre of land.

7) “Ghumao”is another unit used to measure an acre of land in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

8) “Sarsahi” is commonly used in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh where one unit of sarsahi denotes 30.25 square feet.

9) “Marla”is used in Punjab and Haryana and it refers to 272.25 square feet.

SOUTH INDIA

1) “Ankanam”is used to denote 72 square feet of land and is commonly used in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

2) People of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, also use “Guntha”which stands for 1,089 square feet of land.

3) “Kuncham”mostly used in Andhra Pradesh is used to denote 484 square feet of land.

4) “Ground”, used in Tamil Nadu, refers to 2400 square feet of land and is used widely for land measuring purposes.

5) “Cent”is used in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where 1 cent equals to 435.6 square feet.