DDA to stop acquiring land for development projects

A revised version of the draft policy titled ‘Public private participation in land assembly and development in Delhi’ will be tabled before the Lieutenant-Governor in a meeting scheduled for January 15 at Raj Niwas. Newsline has a copy of the policy.

The policy stipulates that a land owner,or a group of land owners or a private developer,will be “permitted to pool the land in an identified area or otherwise for unified planning and servicing”.

A senior DDA official said: “Once an area has been identified and notified for development,instead of the land being acquisitioned the way it has always been,the new policy will involve the land owners in the development.” Within a year from notification,owners can club their land in packets ranging from four to 40 hectares and approach the DDA,which will facilitate the development.

“The owners,who can hand the contract of the work to a private builder,will have to build roads and public infrastructure like arrangement for power and water supply,and EWS and LIG housing. They will also hand over a portion of the developed land to the DDA. They get to keep and develop the rest of the land equitably among themselves as per the provision of the Masterplan 2021,” he said. The division of land between the DDA and the private owners will be based on the size of the land pool (see box).

“Since land costs will obviously escalate following development of these areas,the private owners (will profit from being) able to retain and use a portion of the land for their own commercial objectives that are within Masterplan provisions,” the official added.

For the DDA,the policy promises to ease the pressure of large-scale acquisitions. “There are so many disputes involved in the process of land acquisitions. Then there is the problem of encroachment once the land has been acquired. In this case,the onus of ensuring there is no encroachment lies with private parties. The model will also ensure faster development,” the official added.

The Masterplan 2021 envisages the need for 24 lakh additional dwelling units by 2021.

Policy players
DDA’s role
Preparing sector plans based on the availability of physical infrastructure in identified areas,facilitating and monitoring of all development works. The DDA will also acquire stray pockets of land in cases where owners,with land less than 3 hectares,decide not to pool their land.

Private participants
Private participants will have to facilitate the assembly and surrender of land,assist in preparation of layout plans as per the MPD 2021,demarcate and develop roads and other public infrastructure,and build EWS and LIG housing.

Stakeholders’ view
* FAR on the residential area in assemble pockets be raised from 200 (as suggested in the policy) to 300 or 400.
* Water and sewage treatment plants be developed by the DDA,as the private owners would be paying an External Development Charge to the DDA.
* An empowered commission be set up to resolve disputes between the DDA and private participants.
* Doubts were also raised over them having to surrender a portion of the land to DDA along with the fully developed EWS housing component,besides external charges.