DDA to develop 20 lakh residential units on city outskirts

DDA

Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is going to develop about 20 lakh residential units on the outskirts of the Capital on 24,000 hectares of land offering world-class infrastructure.

The housing authority will be implementing this gigantic land pooling policy under the supervision of Union Ministry of Urban Development in the coming two months.

According to a senior DDA official one consultant will oversee the infrastructural development to facilitate construction of world-class infrastructure and the other will look into the requirement of roads and transport facilities in the upcoming colonies, both of them will be appointed by the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

The aim of the policy is to prohibit the sale of land without the owner’s consent, while at the same time it would enable the private players to develop housing pockets in the city.

According to the policy, a number of small holdings will be pooled and a part of land will be taken from the pool for provision of infrastructure and public facilities. The DDA will provide basic facilities like education, health, water, sewerage and other amenities, while the rest of the land will be returned to the original owners for development. The bright side of this policy is that after the land has been pooled, the owners will get back around 40-60 percent of the total land surrendered. So, for every two to 20 hectare land pooled, about 48 per cent will be returned to the owner.

According to DDA officials, the step will give a boost to realty development in Delhi on the lines of Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad in the National Capital Region. “We can expect construction of five to six lakh new residential units in the next six to seven years and will continue for the next 15 years,” said a senior DDA official. According to the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, the Capital has still about 27,000 hectares which can be developed as sub-cities. MPD-2021 has divided the Capital into 15 planning zones (divisions) designated from ‘A’ to ‘P’.

According to the projections in the master plan, nearly 24 lakh residential units are required for an estimated 23 million people by 2021.

A senior DDA official admitted that the large scale acquisition policy as per the earlier version of the Delhi Master Plan adopted in 1961 had failed to keep pace with the rapid pace of urbanisation witnessed in Delhi.

“The land pooling policy was proposed in the new master plan only to fill the huge gap of residential requirements. This will replace the present model of acquiring and disposal of land by the DDA,” the official said.

DDA has acquired 75,609.84 hectares of land in the last 50 years and developed it for residential, recreational, commercial and institutional purposes. Now, with better and holistic planning, the housing authority intends to set new records and provide more amenities to people. Moreover, for each 1,000 Ha of the pooled land, the government would be able to provide a housing stock of 50,000 dwelling units for the economically weaker sections.

According to an official the DDA now envisages wider public participation to bring in more transparency by inviting objections and suggestions.