Airchains to record land ownership with NFTs for Indian state

Biswa Bangla Gate in Kolkata, West Bengal. Image: Envato Elements

Airchains, a Web3 software and infrastructure firm based in India, has announced a partnership with the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) in the eastern state of West Bengal, aiming to release 500,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to enhance land mutation, a legal process that involves registration and transfer of land ownership. 

See related article: Blockchain Alliance’s Raj Kapoor says the technology can reshape India’s governance systems

Fast facts

• The NFTs will be deployed on a chain created via Polygon’s Supernets in hopes of replacing traditional bureaucracy in New Town, a planned smart city in West Bengal, Airchains said in a statement on Tuesday. Polygon Supernets is a service that assists entities in launching customizable blockchains.
• In India, land ownership faces several challenges, such as forgery, tampering of records, unauthorized access, evasion of tax payments, and illegal transfers, Airchains said in the statement.
• “Our objective is to streamline the process of buying and selling land, eliminating the inherent challenges associated with such transactions,” Debashish Sen, chairman of NKDA, said in the statement. “To accomplish this, we have identified NFTs as the perfect solution, as they enable the physical tokenization of properties, simplifying the entire procedure.”