Port Blair PBPA Masterplan 2030: Zone Check and Land Use Guide

Every active land market in India has its dominant fraud. In the Port Blair Planning Area, it is the sale of undiverted agricultural land for housing. The District Administration has formally warned the public that sub-division of any land holding, and any diversion of land use in PBPA, is strictly governed by the Andaman and Nicobar Island Land Revenue and Land Reforms Regulations, 1966. The sale and purchase of undiverted agricultural land for housing plots is explicitly a fraudulent practice under that advisory, and the administration has stated zero tolerance. Unscrupulous brokers continue to advertise agricultural and hilly revenue area plots for housing ,in print and electronic media ,without disclosing that formal diversion to house site or commercial use has not been completed. Any plot offered without a valid diversion order is an incomplete transaction, regardless of how the title documents look.

The second trap is the Island Coastal Regulation Zone. Port Blair sits on South Andaman Island, and the ICRZ 2019 notification applies to the entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands in place of standard CRZ rules. The PBPA Masterplan 2030 itself shows submergible land zones along coastal and low-lying areas; these are additional restrictions on top of ICRZ controls. Building on ICRZ-1A stretches is prohibited entirely. Revenue officials have demonstrated active enforcement: in October 2024, 4,000 square metres of government land in Austinabad village was reclaimed, five unauthorized structures and fenced encroachments were removed, and illegal construction was halted at four separate sites in Swaraj Dweep in the same operation. These are not isolated cases.

The table below maps the two primary regulatory traps to the verification each demands.

Check your plot against the APWD village-wise proposed land use maps, available at apwd.and.nic.in, before making any payment. As of August 2024, all land registration processes in the South Andaman District are conducted online, which means title verification is now faster to initiate ,but it does not substitute for the diversion order check.

The PBPA Masterplan 2030 covers 34 revenue villages, and zone designations vary sharply between them. Dollygunj carries mixed residential and commercial zoning in the APWD village maps, placing it in the highest-demand tier for private buyers. Garacharma appears with a special reservation designation in the Dollygunj village map boundary, which limits private residential development on affected parcels. Calicut Village, per listings that reference the City Town Plan 2030, is being brought under the municipal area boundary, which raises regulatory compliance requirements but also confirms infrastructure intent.

Bambooflat sits across the Chatham waterway, connected by ferry from Haddo Jetty. The Chatham Bridge remained closed to heavy vehicles as of January 2026, with residents staging a formal protest at Bambooflat Jetty over ferry access. Ferry operations from the new Haddo Vehicle Ferry Jetty were promised within 15–20 days of the protest. Gram Panchayat representatives formally appealing to the Chief Secretary for action on ferry and bridge access. Land in Bambooflat is affordable precisely because access is ferry-dependent. A February 2025 proposal before MoRT&H to declare 14 State Highway roads as National Highways includes the Bathu Basthi to Chatham-Bambooflat bridge route and the Wandoor jetty to Sippighat corridor, which would directly improve connectivity for plots in those villages. The proposal is active but has not resulted in a formal notification.

The table below ranks PBPA localities by investment readiness under the 2030 plan zone designations.

The most misread locality is Bambooflat. The NH upgrade proposal gives buyers a narrative about future road connectivity, and the price differential versus Dollygunj is real. However, the Chatham Bridge remains structurally problematic, the ferry system is documented as unreliable for ambulances and emergency vehicles, and no formal National Highway notification has been issued as of early 2026. Sippighat and Wandoor plots are routinely advertised near the National Park area without disclosing that agricultural land there still requires a formal diversion under the 1966 Regulations before any house site use is valid. Confirm diversion status for every parcel outside the Port Blair municipal wards before committing funds.