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section 33 of Delhi’s Land Reforms Act which does not allow fragmentation of land less than 8 acres, will need to be repealed.
First notified in year 2007, review of the policy began in year 2014 and since then the policy has missed several deadlines. Its understandable to an extent given the number of steps involved in the finalization process, which includes collecting suggestions/objections from the public, discussing them out in the DDA meeting, sending proposal to UD ministry etc. With almost everything else in place, more work needs to be done on the remaining two chapters, namely, transportation and environment.
Under transportation, TOD or Transit Oriented Development is the focus point to bring in new infrastructure parallel to public transport routes to reduce travel time.
A separate chapter on environment has been kept in the planning to focus on Delhi’s greenery and to enforce green norms during all phases of implementation.
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.
DDA okays draft regulations in their final meeting and this pushes the policy further towards getting converted into reality. Further objections / suggestions would be invited from public via notification for a period of 45 days. Though, for the regulations to get alive it would have to go through a final lithmus test at the hands of UD ministry.
Under the new policy, minimum land requirement has been lowered from 3 Ha to 2 Ha. 95 Villages would be converted into development areas and 89 into urban villages. This would release around 70k Ha of land for urbanization.
This will not only bring relief to the real estate industry, people willing to own property at affordable prices within the capital, but will also take away the hassles involved with such grand projects which usually goes with large scale land acquisition. With all been said, its still a long road ahead.
Highlights:
a) Minimum requirement comes down to 2 Ha ( * 2.5 = 5 acre)
b) The landowners, who would participate in the policy will get back 40-60% of developed land, back from DDA.
c) Landowners with fragmented land pieces, will be returned developed land by DDA at a single place, in the vicinity of the largest land holding in the same zone or within 5 kms.
d) 15% of FAR will be reserved for EWS category.
DDA would soon seek final public suggestions before walking ahead with the plan to open up outer Delhi areas for housing projects under land pooling. Master Plan 2021 will need to be amended to accommodate the proposal. This would bring big relief to the stalled real estate industry in the capital. Regions which will get to witness this are Najafgarh, Bakhtawarpur, Ghitorni, Bawana and Kanjhawala.
Per DDA officials, they recieved over 200 suggestions / objections on the proposal. One such suggestion is to increase the FAR of district center and community center. MPD 2021’s chapter 5 (Trade and Commerce) , para 5.7.1, needs to be amended for term ‘non-residential’ against land usage in the facility corridor.
Concept of Country homes will soon be a reality with DDA giving its nod to construction of it in 27 villages. These villages would fall under low density residential areas.
DDA has proposed to reduce the minimum land area requirement from 2.5 acres to 1 acre. Besides, FAR has already been increased for farmhouses in Delhi. Once notified by Urban Development ministry, it will be formally inducted for regularization and would see a steep rise in prices.
“We have declared 27 villages as ‘development area’ so that we can ensure integrated development of urbanizable area as stated in the Master Plan Delhi (MPD) — 2021 under the new land pooling policy. This will also help the development of farmhouses and country homes in those localities,” said a DDA official. Approval for the same was given in a board meeting and would exclude the areas falling under regional park and green belt.