DDA flats draw finally done, lucky 25,000 get keys by January

Kumar hoped owners would get possession of the flats by January 2015.

This year, the draw of lots was webcast live. Kumar said this was done to ensure transparency and maximum reach.

“The process was webcast for the first time. And, thankfully, there were no glitches,” he said.

The DDA received over 10 lakh forms for the scheme. Retired Delhi High Court judge Manju Goel, IIT-Delhi professor Anshul Kumar and National Informatics Centre D-G Mahesh Chandra were the designated “judges” for the draw, under whose supervision the “seed numbers” were extracted. Rest of the process was completed through a computerised draw, for which the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing was roped in.

Randomisation of data in the system began at 9 am at the DDA headquarters and the draw carried out at noon. The first list of allotments — of ground-floor apartments — was done for physically challenged applicants. This was followed by allotments in the reserved and general categories.

Each allottee would be provided an ID and password to help them track the allotment process. Allottees would also be notified through SMS and email alerts, a DDA official said.

The draw came as a relief for the applicants as the date was postponed twice before. The DDA had decided to hold the draw on November 5, later postponed to November 17, which was again put off due to glitches during trial runs.

The housing scheme was launched on September 1 with 25,034 flats on offer. Over 90 per cent of the flats on offer are one-bedroom apartments, located mainly in Rohini, Dwarka and Narela and priced between Rs 14.55 lakh and Rs 22 lakh. The costliest flat is a three-bedroom apartment in Motia Khan in Central Delhi at Rs 1.21 crore.

Of the 25,034 flats, 869 are new constructions developed after 2010. Also on offer are 22,627 one-bedroom flats, 700 units for the economically weaker section (EWS) and 811 units under different categories of old DDA flats.

Nerves before news hit home

As applicants took their place at the DDA headquarters on Tuesday, the air was heavy with anxiety. Only one in 40 applicants would get a chance to own a home in the national capital, which welcomes people from across the country but accommodates only so many.

Just before the announcement of the results of the draw of lots for DDA’s Housing Scheme 2014, applicants looked up to the projector screens as the authority webcast the process live.

Almost everyone on the ground floor of Vikas Sadan held their breath as tokens were pulled out and their numbers read out. The first “seed” number among the applications was 0355299; and the first flat number, 02695. The numbers were fed into the computer and from then on, the an automated system for allotments took over.

The first allotments were made for physically challenged applicants, who are allotted ground-floor apartments. Sitting in the crowd was Akhilesh Kumar, a doctor from Bihar, hoping to see his application number on the screen in this category. “This is the first time I have applied and I am really hoping I get a house. The place where I live is very inconvenient for me and I would be very glad if I could bring my family here,” he said.

It was still several hours before the applicants found out the results, but they stayed on and hoped and wished each other good luck.