Land Acquisition in Bangladesh: 2026 Guide

Land Acquisition in Bangladesh is a statutory process with material consequences for project sponsors, owners, occupiers, lenders and investors. It is not simply a question of agreeing a price for a parcel. Where the State acquires immovable property, the process engages constitutional property protection, a notice-and-award procedure run through the district administration, prescribed compensation principles, and tightly framed statutory remedies. A project team that treats a land requirement as a late-stage administrative task can lose control of programme, cost and stakeholder risk.

The current national framework is the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act, 2017 (the 2017 Act), not the 1982 Ordinance that it repealed. A significant procedural development also occurred in 2026: the Ministry of Land published the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Rules, 2026 in the Official Gazette on 29 July 2026. The Rules matter because the 2017 Act expressly authorises rules on possession, records, valuation and procedure. [1] [2] [3]

This Insight explains the framework as checked on 19 October 2026. It is designed for commercial readers considering infrastructure, industrial, energy, real-estate or public-purpose projects, and for owners or other interested persons responding to acquisition activity. The right next step depends on the asset, project and notice. Readers assessing a live matter can explore TRW’s Projects & Real Estate work or use the firm’s contact route to set out the broad context and question. Do not send confidential, privileged or time-sensitive material through an initial public enquiry.

Table of contents

The legal starting point

Article 42 of the Constitution gives every citizen, subject to lawful restrictions, the right to acquire, hold, transfer and otherwise dispose of property. It also provides that property may not be compulsorily acquired, nationalised or requisitioned except by authority of law. A law authorising acquisition, nationalisation or requisition must provide compensation and either fix the amount or specify the principles and manner for assessing and paying it. The same article says that the adequacy of compensation under such a law cannot be challenged in court merely on the ground that it is inadequate. [4]

That final qualification is commercially important. It does not erase all questions that can arise in a particular process. It does mean that the statutory route, the evidence supplied to the authorities, the classification and valuation inputs, the treatment of interests and the preservation of procedural rights deserve attention from the earliest notice. A landowner’s analysis should not begin and end with an informal view of market price; a project sponsor’s analysis should not begin and end with a headline compensation multiple.

The 2017 Act defines “acquisition” as taking ownership and possession of immovable property for a requiring person or body in exchange for compensation, rehabilitation, or both. It defines a “person interested” broadly as a person or organisation entitled, or capable of claiming entitlement, to compensation, rehabilitation or both because of the acquisition or requisition. The definition of “owner” includes an owner and a lawful possessor. These terms signal why a serious acquisition file must distinguish registered title, possession, occupation, mortgages, leases, crops, structures and competing claims rather than treating “owner” as a single name on a schedule. [1]

The Act has priority over inconsistent law, subject to the statutory framework itself. It applies to both acquisition and temporary requisition, but those are different concepts. Acquisition concerns ownership and possession; requisition is the taking of possession temporarily for a specified period. This article focuses on acquisition. A party facing a requisition notice should not assume that the acquisition timetable, calculation or remedy is identical. [1]

Land Acquisition in Bangladesh: framework and scope

The ordinary national process is administered through the Deputy Commissioner (DC), with the Commissioner, the Ministry of Land or Government involved at defined stages. Under section 4, where immovable property appears to the DC to be required for a public purpose or public interest, the DC issues a preliminary notice in the prescribed form and manner. Before publication, the DC is to capture the actual condition and character of the proposed property, including structures, crops and trees, using video, still images or other technology, and prepare a description.

After notice, a joint list is to be prepared with the requiring person or body and interested persons. The joint list is to be displayed at the local land office and at a convenient project location. [1]

These are not cosmetic steps. The pre-notice record and joint list can shape the later award. Owners and occupiers should therefore preserve contemporaneous material: title and possession documents, current photographs, inventories of buildings, trees and crops, leases, lending documentation, survey details and a record of who attended any joint verification. Requiring bodies should ensure that the project’s land plan, parcel references, design footprint and stakeholder data are stable before the notice is sought. Changes after the statutory process is underway can create avoidable questions about scope, valuation and entitlement.

For acquisition for a private person or body, the 2017 Act requires prior Government approval before the acquisition process begins, whatever the area of property. This should not be reduced to a slogan that land may or may not be acquired “for private projects”. The relevant question is whether the statutory conditions, approvals and process for the specific proposal have been met. The Act’s definition of requiring person or body includes a government or private person or organisation, while section 4(2) adds the prior-approval requirement for private acquisition. [1]

The Act also gives particular treatment to the proposed site. It says that religious places of worship, graveyards and cremation grounds ordinarily may not be acquired, unless acquisition is essential for public purpose or public interest and, where applicable, relocation and reconstruction are funded by the requiring person or body.

For nationally important projects, once a location is selected the DC may control sales, purchases and construction in the relevant area. The statute also addresses structures built in bad faith after the statutory recording exercise, and allows a short appeal to the Commissioner on a related decision. These provisions make early route selection, a defensible footprint and disciplined site communications more valuable than attempts to cure a poorly prepared case after notice. [1]

The 2026 Rules are the current Gazette-published procedural instrument under the 2017 Act. The Gazette identifies them as S.R.O. No. 286-Law/2026 and records their publication by the Ministry of Land on 29 July 2026. The Rules should be checked against the particular case for prescribed forms, supporting documents, verification, service, record creation and valuation procedure. [2] The official Gazette establishes the Rules’ publication; it does not by itself establish how a particular DC office will sequence every step in a live file. That operational position should be confirmed against the notice, the local office and the current text of the Rules, preferably with a Bengali-law review of the applicable forms.

From proposal to final decision

The statutory process is best managed as a sequence of decision points, rather than a single event called “acquisition”. First, the requiring body must develop a sufficiently defined proposal and assemble the materials required for scrutiny. The 2026 Rules contemplate verification of acquisition proposals by the land administration and Ministry of Land. The Rules’ early provisions address proposal checking, feasibility and documentation, while the Act supplies the statutory notice, objection and decision steps. [1] [2]

Second, the section 4 preliminary notice and joint-list exercise establish the proposed asset and the people or interests visible to the process. Interested persons may object to acquisition within 15 working days of the section 4 notice. The DC must hear an objector or authorised representative and prepare a report after hearing and any necessary further inquiry. The 2017 Act then allocates decision-making according to the case: for a proposal above 50 bighas (16.50 acres), the DC sends the file and opinion to the Ministry of Land; below that threshold it is sent to the Commissioner where an objection has been made.

The Act contains separate routes where there is no objection and special timing for nationally important projects. [1]

Third, the final decision is made under the Act. On receiving the DC’s report, the Government is directed to decide within up to 60 working days; the Commissioner is directed to decide within 15 working days, or up to 30 working days where reasons are recorded. A decision by the Government, Commissioner or, where applicable, DC is deemed to have been made for public purpose or public interest. [5]

Fourth, following a decision to acquire, the DC issues the section 7 public notice declaring the intention to take possession and serves notice on the occupier, if any, and known or believed interested persons. The notice identifies the property and requires interested persons or their representatives to attend after the prescribed notice period, state the nature of their interest and claim, and identify their share of compensation. It may also require particulars of interests such as co-ownership or a mortgage. [1]

Statutory time periods are decision disciplines, not a substitute for a project-critical path. They should be diarised, with the date and method of service evidenced. The Act itself differentiates ordinary and nationally important projects; a party should not assume that one published timeframe captures its whole case. Nor should a project team promise a construction start date by adding statutory periods mechanically. Site circumstances, title issues, funding of the award and the status of the requiring body can each matter to the next step.

Award and compensation: what the statute measures

After the section 7 process, the DC investigates the value of the property at the time of the section 4 notice, the claims made and the share of compensation among known lawful claimants, and prepares an award. Notice of the award is to go to interested persons within seven working days, and the estimated award is sent to the requiring person or body. The Act directs that the requiring person or body deposit the award amount with the DC within 120 working days of receiving that estimate. [1]

Section 9 sets the heads of calculation. The DC must consider the market value at the time of the section 4 notice. For market value, the Act refers to the prescribed calculation of the average price during the preceding 12 months for immovable property of the same category and comparable advantage in the vicinity. It also identifies loss in respect of standing crops or trees recorded in the joint list, damage from severance from other property, injury to other movable or immovable property or earnings, and reasonable expenses of moving residence or place of business where relocation is compelled. [1]

The statute then applies additional compensation. For Government acquisition, it provides an additional 200% of market value; for acquisition for a private establishment, the additional amount is 300% of market value. For the specified loss heads concerning crops or trees, severance, injurious effect and moving costs, it provides an additional 100% of the relevant loss. These are statutory components, not a shortcut to a single “replacement cost” figure. The result still turns on what land is comparable, the applicable 12-month data, the physical condition recorded, which loss heads are evidenced and who is lawfully entitled to each component. [1]

The Act also lists matters the DC is not to consider, including the urgency of acquisition, unwillingness to transfer, certain damage for which no action lies, post-section 7 deterioration through use, post-section 7 value increases from the property’s use, and changes, improvements or sales after the section 4 notice. That is a further reason to collect evidence before and immediately after the preliminary notice, not to rely on later improvements or negotiations as if they necessarily control the statutory award. [1]

Agricultural interests require their own analysis. Where property with standing crops cultivated by a bargadar is acquired, the Act provides that the DC must pay crop compensation to that sharecropper in the amount determined for the crop. This is a targeted statutory protection, not a complete answer to every occupation, livelihood or resettlement issue. The identities, records and evidence of cultivation should be addressed early in the claim schedule. [1]

Payment, possession and what happens to title

Payment and possession are distinct but connected stages. Under section 11, after the award is prepared and before possession, the DC must pay compensation to interested persons within up to 60 working days after the requiring person or body deposits the estimated award money, subject to the section’s rules for disputes and absent claimants. [6]

A title or apportionment dispute does not necessarily stop possession. If a claimant refuses compensation, cannot be found, or an objection arises over title or the share of compensation, the DC deposits the money in the public account. For the purpose of taking possession, it is then deemed paid without prejudice to the claim to be determined by an arbitrator. An accepted payment may be taken with an objection as to the amount; by contrast, a person who takes it without objection is not eligible to make the application contemplated by section 30. Parties should record their position expressly and obtain advice before signing a receipt or statement whose legal effect they do not understand. [6]

Once compensation has been paid or is deemed paid under section 11, the acquired property vests absolutely in Government free from encumbrances, and the DC takes possession. The legal consequence is substantial for lenders, tenants, buyers and occupiers: an unresolved question over the distribution of the award is not the same as a continuing right to retain the acquired asset. The DC is then required to publish the acquisition declaration in the Official Gazette in the prescribed form within the statutory period. [1]

The Act also provides a disciplined outcome where the process does not complete. If the requiring person or body does not deposit the award money, acquisition proceedings abate and the DC publishes a declaration in the Official Gazette. Before payment, the Government may revoke acquisition proceedings with approval; where proceedings abate or are revoked, the DC determines damage or costs suffered by the owner and makes a compensation award on that basis. This is a risk point for sponsors: programme planning and funding for the award must be aligned, not treated as an issue for after approval. [1]

Objections, compensation disputes and statutory arbitration

There are two materially different moments for challenge. The first is the objection to acquisition after the preliminary notice. It is time-sensitive, goes to the DC and is concerned with the acquisition proposal. The second is a dispute over compensation or entitlement after the award process begins. The evidence, forum and deadlines are not interchangeable. An interested person should preserve the precise notice, proof of service, award, receipts and correspondence before deciding which pathway is engaged.

The 2017 Act provides a statutory arbitration structure. The Government may appoint, by Gazette notification, a judicial officer not below the rank of Joint District Judge as arbitrator for a specified area. In determining compensation, the arbitrator follows the Act’s valuation provisions. The Act caps the compensation determined for an owner at no more than 10% above the DC’s award. [7] [8]

An award of the arbitrator may be appealed to an Arbitration Appellate Tribunal established by Gazette notification for a specified area. The tribunal consists of one Government-appointed person who is or has been a District Judge; its decision is described as final. The statute again limits an award for each landowner to no more than 10% above the arbitrator’s award, and requires disposal of the appeal within up to 60 working days. If the appellate award is higher, the Act provides for 10% annual additional compensation from the date of the decision until payment or an offer of payment. [9]

These provisions should not be summarised as a general guarantee that every valuation complaint will produce a large revaluation. They establish a statutory, capped compensation route. The official Act also makes procedure, application timing and the relevant Gazette appointments consequential. This Insight does not identify a current Gazette appointment for every district or tribunal area; the cited primary provisions establish the mechanism, not the availability or procedural posture in a particular live matter. That uncertainty should be resolved from the current notice, local jurisdiction and Gazette material before a party relies on the arbitration route.

Project controls and land-record diligence

A sound land-acquisition strategy starts before the section 4 notice. The requiring body should reconcile the engineering or development footprint with plot, mouza and boundary data; identify whether the land is in the ordinary national regime or a special regime; map all visible interests; and create a funding plan for the award and any project-specific commitments. It should maintain one controlled parcel schedule, one version of the drawings used for the proposal and a traceable record of notices, joint-list attendance, valuation materials and payments.

For interested persons, the practical file should bring together the root and current title chain, registered instruments, mutation history, records of rights, land-tax material, possession evidence, mortgages, leases, court orders, family or succession papers, site photographs and details of structures, trees and crops. Those documents serve different purposes. A mutation or digital record may support an administrative record; it should not be treated as a universal cure for defects in title, succession, boundary or possession. Likewise, a registered deed does not remove the need to test the chain, encumbrances and physical parcel against the acquisition schedule.

The Ministry of Land’s public digital land-zoning portal says that mouza sheets are being digitised and geo-referenced and links users to e-mutation and the Digital Record Room. The e-mutation portal publishes official notices concerning online mutation processes, including QR-coded mutation khatians and DCR formats. [10] [11] These official tools can improve document collection and parcel checking. Their availability does not itself certify that the portal’s data is complete, that a digital entry resolves a competing interest, or that a particular schedule matches the ground. Those questions need document-level and site-specific verification.

The World Bank’s 2022 diagnostic review described the practical difficulty of ownership determination where registered instruments, succession and multiple records must be reconciled. It also recorded process bottlenecks at that time. [12] That review is useful background, not proof of the position in any district or case in October 2026. The 2026 Rules are now in force as a Gazette-published procedural instrument, so it would be unsafe to repeat older observations as if they settled present administrative practice. The appropriate commercial response is to build evidence early, identify gaps, and verify the current administrative requirements on the live file.

Special regimes, rehabilitation and financing standards

The ordinary national framework should not be applied automatically everywhere. The official text of the Chittagong Hill-tracts (Land Acquisition) Regulation, 1958 provides a separate regime for acquisition in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It allows the DC to acquire, by written order, land held on valid title that is not resumable under the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation, 1900 or its rules, where required for a public purpose. It has its own notice, vesting, compensation and appeal structure. The official text records that its 2019 amendment provides an additional 200% of market value for public purpose and 300% for private purpose. [13]

For a Hill Tracts project, that is not a footnote. The official primary text confirms the separate Regulation but does not, by itself, answer every question about the applicable ancillary rules, local administration, land status, community claims or project-specific approvals for a particular parcel. Those questions should be addressed under the separate regime and current local materials rather than assumed from the 2017 Act. This is an area where the correct legal track should be confirmed before a land budget or stakeholder timetable is approved.

It is equally important not to conflate statutory acquisition compensation with every resettlement or environmental-and-social standard that may apply to a financed project. The 2017 Act’s definition of acquisition refers to compensation, rehabilitation or both. [1] The World Bank diagnostic observed a gap between the domestic framework and the World Bank’s resettlement standard, including on detailed rehabilitation and economic rehabilitation. [12] That is a comparison by a development-finance institution, not a rule that automatically imports its standard into every Bangladesh acquisition.

A project may nevertheless have additional obligations through its financing documents, concession, environmental approvals, lender standards or contractual commitments. The current primary sources reviewed for this Insight do not establish a single, generally applicable statutory resettlement-plan obligation that should be asserted for every acquisition. Accordingly, any project team should identify the source of each social, relocation, livelihood or consultation commitment: statute, rule, permit, finance agreement, contract or voluntary project protocol. Clear source mapping avoids both under-compliance and overstatement.

For major projects, the most resilient approach is to run legal acquisition, land-title diligence, stakeholder engagement, financing covenants and construction programming as linked workstreams. The legal process determines what the State may do and when; the project’s contracts and finance arrangements may determine more. Treating one as a substitute for the other creates avoidable risk.

Frequently asked questions

Informational notice

This publication is general legal information only, current as checked on 19 October 2026. It is not legal advice, does not address the facts of any particular acquisition, and does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Legal and procedural outcomes depend on the property, notices, evidence, project structure, applicable rules, location and current administrative materials. Obtain appropriately qualified advice before acting or relying on the information.