Delhi set to witness housing boom

Centre notifies land pooling norms

A housing boom is in the offing in Delhi with the Union Urban Development Ministry on Tuesday notifying operational guidelines for implementing the land pooling policy. The policy itself was notified one-and-a-half years ago and its implementation will help Delhi Development Authority obtain land for housing without getting involved in the cumbersome acquisition process.
The DDA hopes to implement the policy in the next two months but it will have to wait for the Delhi Government to notify 95 villages as development areas. Before that, the Government has to declare 89 of these villages as urbanised. Most of the villages are in west, southwest and north Delhi.

According to DDA officials, the policy will make it possible to build 24 lakh to 25 lakh housing units in the Capital. “DDA has not acquired any land in the city in the past decade due to the stringent provisions of the Land Acquisition Act. It is a time-consuming process. This policy helps us develop infrastructure without acquiring land,” said Balvinder Kumar, Vice-Chairperson of the Authority.

The policy favours those who provide DDA with larger land parcels. On contributing 2-20 hectares, the owners will be compensated with plots measuring 48 per cent of the original. For 20 hectares or more, the compensatory plots will measure 60 per cent of the original. The owners will be able to build residential, commercial, public and semi-public facilities on these alternative plots.

The alternative land will be allotted through a computerised process, and those who apply first will be given preference. If a group contributes land, DDA will have no role in splitting up the compensation among its members. “We will plan the area’s development and accordingly allot land. There will be no manual intervention, though the department will follow a policy of first-come-first-serve. Those who apply in the first month will be eligible for prime plots,” said Kumar.

DDA will collect external development charges (Rs 2 crore per acre) for building infrastructure from the land contributors, and for the first time there is a penalising clause for missing deadlines.

The housing and commercial projects will have to be developed within seven years of getting the alternative plots, but more time will be given on payment of a penalty.