Two years after the policy was cleared by the Union government, Delhi will finally start the process of allowing development in 95 urban villages, paving the way for lakhs of units of relatively affordable housing to be constructed.
On Thursday, Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said the government would notify 95 urban villages as “development areas”, which would allow the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to implement its land pooling policy.
Providing basic services
As per the policy, which was cleared by the Union Urban Development Ministry in May 2015, parcels of land can be pooled together and handed over to the DDA, which would then provide basic development.
After developing the land, which includes making roads and providing for water and sewage lines, the DDA will return the land back to the owners, who can then construct housing units.
The implementation had been pending as 89 of the villages in question were rural, and had to be converted to urban.
On Tuesday, on the orders of Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, the Delhi Urban Development Department notified the change of the villages to urban.
30 villages under SDMC
Of the villages, 50 are under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and 30 under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation. Taking the next step, Mr. Jain said, the government would declare the villages, the 89 that were declared urban this week and six that had been declared earlier, as development areas within a week.
“For the end-user, properties would become affordable. We estimate that about 20 to 25 lakh flats would be constructed in the next five to 10 years. The artificial restriction on supply of land that had been in place till now will stop,” said Mr. Jain.
As per the policy, those who give the DDA more than 50 acres of land will get 60% of it back after development. For 5 to 50 acres, the owners will get 48% of the land back.
Since many housing societies had bought the land and further sold units to home-buyers years ago, the government’s decision comes as a relief after years of waiting.
George K. Daniel, the marketing manager of a housing society that has 6.5 acre of land in Ujwa village near Dwarka, said the 200-flat project, Sree Guru Heights, had been waiting for the nod since 2014. He added that he was hopeful the entire process would be completed by October.
Meanwhile, political parties seemed to be scrambling to take credit for the move.
Vijender Gupta, the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, termed the Lieutenant-Governor’s decision “historic” and said the land pooling policy would give a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “housing for all by 2022” mission.
The Delhi government, however, saw it differently.
Mr. Jain said the houses that would come up in these 95 villages would not be under the Centre’s scheme, but instead made by private builders.
He added that the land in question, about 77,000 acres, would be handed to the DDA, and about 44,000 acres would be returned for construction of houses.
Land for schools
He added that the AAP government had asked the DDA for 10% of the land to make schools, hospitals, Delhi Jal Board facilities and other basic services.
He said the DDA had agreed to give whatever land needed for these services free of cost. He said about 40-50 villages on the borders of Delhi would remain as rural, where development would not be allowed to preserve the “green lungs” of the city.
