There was a lingering issue with the land belonging to gram sabha in the 95 villages to be notified, which was hampering the progress of DDA’s Land pooling policy. It has finally been transferred to Delhi Govt. and will now enable the state govt to undertake infrastructure projects after the remaining land is pooled in under LPP.
The notification for the same was issued on 29th Oct. Now, though it may seem that this should end all the speculations on the LPP and it should become a reality soon, but we will still be skeptical about the overall outcome. As per sources, Delhi Govt wants to move cautiously and may take more time before giving it its final nod. They want to consult different group of stakeholders to ensure that everybody’s concerns have been taken care of, specially, that of farmers, before they give their approval.
Just to reiterate, once the policy gets into implementation stage, it will pave way for development of 20-25 lakh homes in the capital in a planned manner and will open door of opportunities for all the sections alike.
Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, minister of Urban Development, approved the regulations for operationalisation of the DDA’s Land Pooling Policy, but with five amendments.
We see two final steps towards its realization:
Amendments:
a) Full utilization of approved FAR.
FAR 400 per cent for group housing to be applicable on net residential land which is exclusive of the 15 per cent FAR reserved for EWS housing. FAR for commercial buildings is 250 per cent.
b) Ensure timely development of Infrastructure
In case of any delay in completing external development, DDA will have to pay a penalty of 2 per cent of EDC per year for the first two years and 3 per cent of EDC per year thereafter to the DE (farmers/land owners) for any delay beyond the date of completion of the construction by DE or five years whichever is later till the external development works are completed.
c) Helping farmers in paying Development charges
Farmers who are willing to participate in land pooling but are unable to pay external development charges would be allowed to give up a part of the returnable residential land, i.e., they will get 35 per cent of the returnable residential land instead of 43 per cent. This option shall be exercised at the time of submission of applications for participation in land pooling.
d) Transparency in allotment of developed land
Transparency in allocation of the developed land to DE by DDA was one big concern area. To ensure this, DDA shall devise a computerized (algorithm based) system for prioritizing applications received for allocation of plots of returnable land.
e) Ensure mandatory housing for Economically weaker section
It will be mandatory for the DEs to undertake construction of houses for EWS which will be 15 per cent of the FAR over and above the maximum permissible residential FAR (400 per cent).
After months of waiting, LG gave approval to Land Pooling Policy on Friday. This will pave way for the housing boom in capital. DDA will allow pooling of land on over 24k Ha of land in outer Delhi. The policy was notified by UD ministry in September, 2013. Per DDA’s officials, there are still some operational issues to be taken care of. The policy will include areas of outer Delhi including villages around Burari, najafgarh, narela, kanjhawala. For the pooling to happen, sixty percent of landowners will need to agree and submit their land parcels under the policy, for the policy to implement. Further, there are issues such as that of stamp duty collection. It will not be feasible for the land owners who would have already paid the stamp duty while buying land, once, to pay it again, that too twice, while handover / takeover of the land parcels from DDA. DDA is working out to waive it off to make the process simpler and acceptable. Also, notification of the identified villages will need to be done by the Delhi government for the urbanization to occur. It should take care of the number of sections of Delhi Land Reforms Act, such as, 81, 33, 42, which prohibits agricultural land to be used for residential / commercial purposes. DDA is also planning to hire consultant to help them with the better planning of the sub cities.
Smart City tag or not.. Delhi’s upcoming zones will have all the components of a smart city.
Some of key features to look forward to are: Advanced water and solid waste management system, well planned mass transport system along with dedicated cycle lanes, extensive use of green technologies, such as solar power generation, rain water harvesting etc, better mobility through planned elevated roads, Wifi hubs with high speed internet connectivity and facilities such as parks, schools, recreational areas, retail outlets etc.
DDA’s latest affordable housing scheme is highly comprised of one-bedroom flats as opposed to two and three bedroom flats. DDA has admitted that it is not focusing on middle class anymore and is more keen on meeting demands of economically weaker section and that of lower middle class. The announcement of Land Pooling policy is expected to ensure availability of 20-25 lakh new housing units for the remaining sections of the society.
The policy aimed at vast development of residential complexes within the capital, is expected to get launched in another 2-3 months period, per communication from DDA’s vice chairman, Mr Balvinder Kumar. The policy which carries the solution to much of capital’s woes, including that of Economically weaker section, has eliminated the time consuming process of land acquisition and will instead be a partnership venture between public and private entities. The policy is expected to upgrade city’s housing stock in the coming years. Also, per estimates, govt is expected to provide 20 EWS units for every acre of pooled land.
Per the Vice Chairman, there are still a few legal issues to be resolved before it getting a go-ahead. They are still trying to understand the apprehensions and take suggestions from representatives of different bodies. This approach would curb chances of any resistance in the future, during the implementation of the policy and is a welcome step. Also, section 33 of Delhi’s Land Reforms Act which does not allow fragmentation of land less than 8 acres, will need to be repealed.
Since Independence there had been a number of proposals to turn Delhi into a world class city, something it deserved to be.. but that all had stayed on paper or did not materialize into the actual thing because of ill-conceptualization. Delhi Development Authority was formed with the very same reason to put Delhi on the right track in terms of infrastructure. But even after over 6 decades of independence, Delhi has not been able to achieve that status. Even though DDA has a couple of things to brag about, Dwarka and Rohini being a couple of those, but has largely failed to meet the city needs so far.
Nonetheless, the announcement of Land Pooling policy has the brought in the much needed respite and although it may be too soon to say it but still would say, it has the caliber to take this city’s repo to new heights.
Absence of such mechanism / policy had been the cause to such large scale development of unauthorized / unplanned colonies. With no governmental involvement, these colonies lagged in the very basic amenities, such as electricity connections, sewerage, drinking water and even proper roads /streets. With Delhi falling under high-risk seismic zones, these issues become grave.
DDA / UD Ministry have taken time to implement the policy and they may take more time but that should be the recommended approach. We Indians have the tendency to plan on the run, though it should not be the recommended way, specially, when it comes to city planning.
All’s well that ends well… and if DDA is able to pull this well, it may lead the city towards a better and much awaited future. Let us keep our fingers crossed.