Land pooling policy in Delhi gets Centre’s approval

17 lakh houses to be built; FAR reduced to 400

The Centre on October 11 gave its final nod to Delhi’s land pooling policy, which has been in the works for the past five years. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said on the sidelines of an event, “I have signed the land pooling policy”.

The policy was earlier approved by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), at its Board meeting on September 7. Senior officials of the HUA Ministry said no major changes had been made to the policy.

With the policy getting its approval, the Capital is set to get 17 lakh houses, including five lakh houses for the economically weaker sections. Under the approval given by the DDA, whose chairman is Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) has been restricted to 200 as opposed to 400, which was initially proposed.

A senior DDA official had said that the FAR had been reduced keeping in mind the availability of resources and services required for the development of a particular land.

While approving the policy and sending it to the Centre for approval, the DDA had maintained that it will act only as the “facilitator and planner” and that the “development will be taken up by the developer entities or consortium”.

In December 2017, the DDA had announced that it would act as the developer entity and transfer of land to the urban body was not required, as originally stated.

With the approval, landowners having land of any size can participate in the policy. However, the minimum area required for taking up the development is two hectares.

Stating that under the policy, an integrated sector-based planning approach will be followed, a DDA official said that a sector of 250 to 300 hectares of land will be eligible to be developed once a minimum of 70 per cent contiguous land within a sector is assembled.

In July this year, the urban body had held a two-day public hearing and Board of Enquiry where stakeholders were invited to put forth their suggestions and objections to the policy.