Gaj, marla, kanal and killa: how land is measured in Punjab

What is 1 marla in square feet in Punjab?

One marla in Punjab is 272.25 square feet, which is 30.25 square yards or 30.25 gaj. The figure comes from the Punjab karam of 5.5 feet: a square of one karam is one sarsahi at 30.25 sq ft, and nine sarsahi make one marla.

Every step inside the Punjab ladder is exact, with no rounding. Only conversions out to metric units, such as the hectare, need rounding. That matters because the numbers written into a sale deed and a jamabandi entry are in kanal, marla and sarsahi, while the price a dealer quotes over the phone is usually in gaj. If the two do not reconcile, one of them is wrong, and it is almost always worth finding out which before any money moves.

• 1 marla = 272.25 sq ft
• 1 marla = 30.25 sq yd, which Punjab buyers call 30.25 gaj
• 1 marla = 9 sarsahi
• 1 marla = one twentieth of a kanal
• 1 marla = one one-hundred-and-sixtieth of a killa or acre

What is the full gaj to murabba conversion table?

The Punjab ladder runs sarsahi, marla, kanal, killa and murabba. Nine sarsahi make one marla, twenty marla make one kanal, eight kanal make one killa of 43,560 sq ft, and twenty-five killa make one murabba. One gaj is one square yard, or nine square feet.

The murabba is not just an old word. Motiaz Estate on the Bathinda-Muktsar Road is a 25-acre colony, which is the same area as one murabba, or 200 kanal, or 4,000 marla. A murabba in the revenue record is a specific consolidation rectangle, so read that as an area comparison rather than a record entry. Pushpa Square on the Bathinda Ring Road is 3 acres, so 24 kanal. Maya Garden Trillium at Sainsarwal on NH-7 is 5 acres, so 40 kanal.

• 1 karam, also called a gatha, = 5.5 ft
• 1 sarsahi = one karam by one karam = 30.25 sq ft
• 1 gaj = 1 sq yd = 9 sq ft
• 1 marla = 9 sarsahi = 272.25 sq ft = 30.25 gaj
• 1 kanal = 20 marla = 5,445 sq ft = 605 gaj
• 1 killa = 8 kanal = 160 marla = 43,560 sq ft = 4,840 gaj
• 1 killa = 1 acre in Punjab revenue use
• 1 murabba = 25 killa = 200 kanal = 4,000 marla = 25 acres
• 1 hectare = about 2.47 acres = about 19.77 kanal

How big is a 200 gaj plot in marla?

A 200 sq yd plot is 200 gaj, 1,800 square feet and about 6.6 marla, which is 6 marla and about 5.5 sarsahi. The 200 to 300 sq yd plots at Arcadiaa Enclave on the Mansa-Barnala Road sit between 6.6 and 9.9 marla, so a 300 gaj plot is close to half a kanal.

Motiaz Estate sells plots from 191 to 500 sq yd, which is a range of about 6.3 to 16.5 marla. Nothing in that colony reaches a full kanal, because a kanal is 605 gaj. This is a misreading we correct often at the office: buyers hear 500 gaj and picture a kanal, when the plot is closer to five sixths of one.

Arcadiaa Enclave starts at Rs 55 lakh all inclusive. If that entry price is for the 200 sq yd size, it works out near Rs 27,500 per sq yd, but confirm the current size and rate on the price sheet rather than working backwards from a headline figure.

• 191 gaj = 1,719 sq ft = about 6.3 marla
• 200 gaj = 1,800 sq ft = about 6.6 marla
• 300 gaj = 2,700 sq ft = about 9.9 marla, close to half a kanal
• 500 gaj = 4,500 sq ft = about 16.5 marla, about 0.83 kanal
• 605 gaj = 5,445 sq ft = exactly 1 kanal

Why do two different marla figures circulate in Punjab?

Two marla figures are in use. The revenue record in Punjab works on 272.25 sq ft, built from the 5.5 ft karam. Many plotted colonies and brochures in the Tricity belt instead quote a marla of 25 sq yd, or 225 sq ft. Always ask which figure a price is based on.

The same 200 gaj plot reads as 6.6 marla on the revenue figure and 8 marla on the colony figure. Neither is a trick, but a per-marla rate quoted on one basis and compared against a per-marla rate quoted on the other will mislead you by roughly a fifth. The safe habit is to convert everything to gaj or square feet, compare there, and treat the area written on the sale deed as the one that governs.

Ask the developer to put the plot area in square yards and square feet in writing, and check it against the site plan before you pay a token amount.

Is a bigha the same across Punjab districts?

No. Bigha is not standardised across Punjab, and it is not the unit used in the state's consolidated revenue records. Jamabandi entries for the districts we work in are written in kanal, marla and sarsahi. If a seller quotes bighas, ask for the figure on the fard or jamabandi and confirm it with the patwari.

Bigha and biswa are the working units in Himachal, parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and the size shifts by state, by district and sometimes by village. Punjab consolidation put land into killa, kanal and marla, which is why an agreement written in bighas for land in Bathinda, Mansa or Kharar should always be traced back to the kanal and marla entry in the record.

This is a records question, not a maths question, so do not settle it with an online converter. Pull the fard, read the entry and ask the patwari of the concerned village. Where anything is unclear, confirm it with a property lawyer before you sign.

How do you turn a per sq yd rate into a per marla or per acre price?

Multiply the per sq yd rate by 30.25 for a marla, by 605 for a kanal and by 4,840 for an acre. Motiaz Estate on the Bathinda-Muktsar Road is quoted at a base price of Rs 25,000 per sq yd, so at that rate one marla works out near Rs 7.56 lakh and one kanal near Rs 1.51 Cr. Rates and available sizes change, so treat every figure here as a worked example and confirm the current price sheet before you count on it.

Land parcels move the other way, quoted per acre or per killa and then broken down. The 6.15-acre parcel on NH-05 on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh highway is priced at Rs 3.65 Cr, which is about Rs 59.3 lakh per acre, about Rs 7.4 lakh per kanal, and about Rs 1,226 per sq yd.

Those two per-sq-yd numbers, Rs 25,000 and Rs 1,226, are not comparable and should never be set against each other. A developed plot price carries roads, parks, sewerage, approvals and, where the paperwork is in order, a registry-ready title. A raw parcel price carries none of that. Compare plot to plot and parcel to parcel, on the same unit, in the same corridor.

• Rs 25,000 per sq yd = about Rs 7.56 lakh per marla
• Rs 25,000 per sq yd = about Rs 1.51 Cr per kanal
• Rs 25,000 per sq yd = about Rs 12.1 Cr per acre at the plotted rate
• 6.15 acres at Rs 3.65 Cr = about Rs 59.3 lakh per acre
• 6.15 acres at Rs 3.65 Cr = about Rs 7.4 lakh per kanal, or about Rs 1,226 per sq yd

Why are flats quoted in square feet and plots in gaj?

Plots are sold on land area, so they are quoted in gaj, marla and kanal. Apartments are sold on built-up or super area, so they are quoted in square feet. Affinity Belgravia at Dera Bassi lists a 3 BHK at 2,150 sq ft, which is about 239 sq yd of paper area, not land.

The largest layout there, a 4 BHK with servant room at 3,380 sq ft, converts to about 376 sq yd. Converting an apartment figure into gaj is arithmetic that tells you nothing useful, because the number includes shared walls, lobbies and, in a super-area quote, a share of common space. Where a project is registered under RERA, the Act requires the promoter to disclose carpet area as the Act defines it, and the agreement for sale is drawn on that figure, so ask for the carpet area separately and match it against the registered documents. How that is applied varies from project to project, so have a lawyer check it.

Confirm the area basis in writing with the developer, and have a lawyer read the buyer agreement before you commit.

What should you check before you pay a token amount?

Check that the area on the sale deed, the jamabandi and the site plan agree, in kanal and marla, before any token payment. Ask for the khasra or khewat number, the approval status, and a boundary you can trace on a map. Punjab Roots Realty shares the papers we hold in writing before a site visit, and tells you which documents only the seller, the developer or the revenue office can give you.

Approval and registration are two different things, and the words get used loosely. Arcadiaa Enclave in Mansa is PUDA approved, which is a layout approval. Pushpa Square in Bathinda carries the RERA registration PBRERA-BTI08-PC0390, which you can look up yourself on the Punjab RERA portal. The two are not alternatives. A layout approval does not stand in for a RERA registration, and a project that falls within the Act needs both, so ask for each number, check it on the portal, and have a property lawyer confirm the position for the project you are buying into.

We quote in sq yd, marla and acres every working day, and every project we sell is drawn on satellite imagery on Jameen Deal, so you can trace the boundary and sanity-check the area against the figure on paper before the site visit.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Measurement conventions, approvals and record entries vary, so confirm anything that affects a purchase with a property lawyer, a qualified surveyor or the patwari of the concerned village before you transact.

• The fard or jamabandi area in kanal, marla and sarsahi
• The khasra or khewat number matching the site plan
• The layout approval, and the RERA registration number where the Act applies to the project
• A RERA number you can look up, for example PBRERA-BTI08-PC0390 for Pushpa Square
• The boundary traced on satellite imagery before you travel to the site