Land pooling in Delhi further simplified: Now DDA to act only as facilitator

Oct 12,2017

Land pooling in Delhi further simplified: Now DDA to act only as facilitator

Land pooling in Delhi, which is expected to meet the residential needs of about 95 lakh people besides stimulating economic growth, has now been further simplified for speedy execution. Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will now act as a facilitator and planner as against the role initially envisaged for it as a part of simplification of execution of land pooling policy, ministry sources said.
Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Lt Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal met in Nirman Bhawan and discussed various aspects of the Land Pooling Policy and decided to make some changes in the policy decided earlier. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary (HUA) and Vice Chairman of DDA, also participated in the discussion.
Originally, land pooled under the policy was to be transferred to DDA which was to act as the Developer Entity (DE) and undertake further sectoral planning and development of infrastructure in the pooled land. The Minister and LG today decided to do away with this requirement and land title continues to be with the original land owners.
DDA was asked to immediately initiate spatial and services planning for the five zones covered under Land Pooling Policy so that the policy could be given immediate effect after finalisation of regulations under the Policy.
While both the Minister and LG expressed concerns over delay in implementing Land Pooling Policy, Puri thanked Baijal for his initiative in having 89 villages declared as urban areas under the Delhi Municipal Act, 1957 and 95 villages as development areas, as required for the implementation of land pooling.
DDA was directed to formulate necessary regulations under the Policy in accordance with the changes in a month’s time. DDA was also asked to ensure single-window clearance mechanism for according necessary approvals for speedy implementation, sources said.
Land Pooling Policy covers the greenfield areas in five zones viz., J, K-1, L, N and P-II coming under the Master Plan of Delhi-2021. To incentivize dense development for effective utilization of scarce land resource in the national capital, the policy permits enhanced FAR of 400 as against the present 150. To promote affordable housing, an additional FAR of 15 percent is also allowed.
About 22,000 hectares of land is expected to be pooled which could meet the needs of about 95 lakh people. Land pooling would catalyse economic, social and civic development of the national capital besides triggering substantial investments and employment generation.
Under the Land Pooling Policy, 60 percent of pooled land would be returned to land owners after infrastructure development, if the pooled land is 20 hectares and above and 48 percent, if the land pooled, is between 2 and 20 hectares. Of the 60 percent of returned land, 53 percent will be for residential purposes, 5 percent for city level commercial use and 2 percent for public and semi-public use. In the other case, the same would be 43 percent, 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Affordable houses for Economically Weaker Sections to be built under the policy shall be of the size of 32-40 sq mt. Half of this housing stock shall be retained by the Developer Entity to house Community Service People working for the residents/owners of the Group Housing. These houses will be built at the site or at premises contiguous to the site allotted. The other half of affordable houses shall be sold to DDA at the base cost of Rs 2,000 per sq ft for further sale to beneficiaries.
Experts say that DDA doesn’t seem to have the in-house expertise to master plan such a large land mass. It should revisit the earlier global Request for Proposals (RFP) to invite global organisations to design modern and smart zonal plans..”DDA doesn’t have the last mile connect and infrastructure to handle the physical operationalisation of land pooling. Multiple agencies like DJB, MCD etc. have to be roped in, and policy interventions to be made immediately to augment the infrastructure needs of these proposed smart zones. Do not repeat the mistakes of Rohini and Dwarka,” says Ramesh Menon of Certes Realty.