The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to extend the window for accepting applications for its land pooling policy (LPP) by a month, the urban body announced on Thursday. The earlier deadline to submit applications to participate in the LPP was September 30.
According to a senior DDA official, the decision was taken as the urban body has received a lukewarm response from landowners, in the 104 villages identified for the LPP.
From May 28, when DDA reopened the window for the LPP, till September 30, close to 150 applicants, with a total of 115 hectares of land, expressed interest in the policy. The window for the policy has already been extended once — from August 25 to September 30. However, the extension has done little to kindle interest in the policy with most of the land earmarked for LPP still being privately owned.
The senior DDA official added that since 2019, when the window for the LPP applications was first opened, only 7,070 applicants with 7,390 hectares of land have expressed their interest, out of the total poolable land of 19,074 hectares.
Notified on two occasions (in 2013 and 2018), the LPP aims to provide 17 lakh dwelling units for a population of roughly 80 lakh people. While the DDA plays the role of facilitator in the LPP, the urban body has struggled to garner interest among landowners in the 104 villages – which have been divided into six zones and further divided into 129 sectors – as a result of which no development works are yet to take-off.
According to the LPP, a minimum participation rate of 70% and contiguous land of 70% is mandatory to form consortiums of landowners, which is yet to be achieved in any sector earmarked under the LPP policy.
As of July 27, 6,973 applicants with 7,317 hectares of land expressed interest in the policy, which is 38.36% of the total poolable land.
Meanwhile, the urban body has also extended the deadline for consortium formation, in Sectors 2 and 3 (Zone P-II) and Sector 10A (Zone-N), where conditional notices were first issued in May.
According to a senior DDA official, the reason for recurring extensions, in the case of conditional notices, is due to landowners being unable to ensure a minimum of 70% contiguous land.
The notices were issued to landowners, who have expressed interest in the policy, on the condition that they ensure minimum contiguity in land within 90 days, the failure of which will result in the notice being cancelled or withdrawn.
However, the urban body has provided an extension each time the deadline has lapsed. “They (landowners) have the minimum participation but they are yet to ensure minimum contiguity of land. However, they are inching closer and we want to help facilitate the implementation of the land pooling policy in these sectors,” said the senior DDA official.
Once an area meets the conditions to be notified under the LPP, the owners or the developer entity get 60% of the land to develop residential and commercial facilities. The remaining 40% of the land has to be surrendered to service providing agencies, such as the DDA, for infrastructural development works such as laying road networks, sewerage systems and developing parks.
