Signal Delhi Moves to Give Every Property a Unique Aadhaar-Style Digital Identity

Summary

The Delhi government is preparing the Delhi Land Records Bill 2026, which would assign every property in the capital—houses, apartments, commercial buildings, and land—a unique "Property ID" modeled on India's Aadhaar digital identity system. The bill is still under review by a group of ministers and has not yet reached the cabinet; once approved, it would be introduced in a special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. The system would use drone surveys and digital mapping to establish property boundaries, with multi-story buildings receiving separate digital records for each floor and unit, and would consolidate records currently scattered across multiple government departments into a single digital platform. The initiative extends the central government's rural-focused SVAMITVA scheme, which was previously piloted in 30 villages, into an urban context. Officials cite the difficulty of proving ownership, completing transactions, securing loans, and resolving boundary disputes under the current fragmented record system as the motivation. The move reflects a broader pattern of India expanding digital identity infrastructure from citizen identification into asset registration.