Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna has directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to set up a corpus that will fund the maintenance of all flats built by the agency in future. Records of a meeting on January 8 show Khanna wants a separate head of account in the Finance department for the maintenance of flats constructed by DDA for the next 30 years. He wants the work to be assigned to a single chief engineer so that there is control over maintenance. Existing housing rules say maintenance is the responsibility of residents welfare associations,but a senior DDA official said: Experience shows this really doesnt work and,therefore,many properties fall into a state of unsalvageable disarray. The DDA will now have to make necessary amendments in housing regulations to introduce the new corpus fund. DDA officials said the cost of new DDA flats will now have a component that will contribute to the maintenance fund. It will be a nominal amount,the officer said. The January 8 meeting set out another task for the DDA to carry out maintenance of existing flats in a phased manner. A DDA official said: Khanna had suggested in 2009 that the DDA should spruce up the look of its existing flats,more so before the Commonwealth Games. Phase 1 of the drive will include all flats en route to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Siri Fort complex from the Games Village. Eventually,all 3 lakh DDA flats and its commercials establishments will get the freshly-painted look at the cost of Rs 300 crore.
