Who are the slum dwellers eligible for a flat under Delhi’s new policy? Check details

The government said the policy will benefit four lakh families, or almost 20 lakh people.

“We are also working on a new provision under which even family members living on the first or second floor of the slum unit will be eligible for rehabilitation by giving an additional charge,” Sood said.

According to officials, the new policy is expected to make the relocation process smoother.  “Earlier, we used to see that half the families in a slum were eligible, while the other half were not, which used to lead to resistance and court cases. The new policy will make everyone eligible, so people will cooperate more,” an official said.

Tenders will be issued for slum parcels in Mayur Vihar in East Delhi, Seelampur in Northeast, Sultanpuri in Northwest, Lajpat Nagar in Southeast and Pitampura in Central North districts, as per Shah’s directions to issue tender for rehabilitation of 5 slum clusters under public private partnership (PPP) mode.

“Extending the rehabilitation eligibility cut till 2025 is a revolutionary move that will give all slum dwellers in Delhi a pucca house, so that every GenZ in all slums of Delhi can think of a better future. We have also stuck to our promise of Jaha Jhuggi Wahan Makan,” Sood said. Similar to the current policy, he added, slum dwellers will have to pay a sum ranging between Rs 1.12 lakh to Rs 1.41 lakh to get a house.

The Indian Express had reported in March that the Delhi government is working on a new slum policy which will extend the eligibility cut-off date from the present January 1, 2015 to January 1, 2025.

Progress on relocation

Slum rehabilitation in the national capital is currently governed by the Delhi government’s Delhi Slum and Jhuggi Jhopri Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015, which was brought in by the previous AAP government and subsequently also adopted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for slums on central government lands. The rehabilitation process, however, has progressed at an excruciatingly slow pace over the past decade, with only two in-situ projects — Ashok Vihar and Kalkaji, together providing around 4,700 flats — completed so far, both by DDA.

Under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, which the government says it will use, private developers come in to construct housing to rehabilitate slum dwellers on part of the slum land while the remaining land is commercially developed . The underlying rationale is that the developer recovers the cost of building units for slum dwellers by making profits from the ‘free sale’ component. The model was expected to work well since slums are typically located on high-value land in central city areas.

However, DDA has struggled to attract private developers, who cite small land parcels, difficult locations near drains and railway tracks, and frequent litigation. The only ongoing PPP redevelopment project is Kathputli Colony in Shadipur. Conceived in 2008 and launched in 2018, the project has faced repeated delays. DDA had said developer Raheja would hand over 2,800 EWS flats by mid-2026, but the target has not been met. Insolvency proceedings against the company were initiated by the NCLT last October.

In 2022, DDA floated  proposals or formal bidding documents for six projects covering around 10,300 households and was processing four more projects covering 15,000 households. However, officials said the proposals were eventually shelved due to poor developer response. Apart from Kathputli Colony, no PPP-based slum rehabilitation project is currently underway in Delhi.