DDA land pooling policy approved

The Ministry of Urban Development has approved the regulations for land pooling policy in Delhi, which will pave way for the development of about 100 residential projects across the outer part of the capital.

The policy of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was approved with five amendments, according to officials in the urban development ministry. The amendments include timely external development of necessary infrastructure by the DDA, enabling farmers in paying the development charges, ensure mandatory housing for economically weaker sections (EWS), transparency in allotment of returnable land and full utilisation of approved floor area ratio (FAR).

According to the Delhi Master Plan-2021, DDA will undertake urbanisation of about 20,000 hectares of land in association with the private sector. The private sector would be responsible for assembling land which would then be made available to the DDA for redevelopment.

The development across outskirts of Delhi will bring in about 14-16 lakh units. DDA has been unable to acquire any land over the last 10 years, which mandated the need for such a hybrid pooling policy, under the Delhi Master Plan 2021. About 20,000-25,000 acres of land will be unlocked through 95 villages and it will take about 10 years to fully develop the land. Currently, the population of Delhi is around 17 million and is expected to reach 23million by 2021. The Master Plan 2021 seeks to build housing units for all Delhiites.

According to the amendments, any delay in completion of the development by Land Pooling Agency, DDA shall pay a penalty of 2 per cent of External Development Charges (EDC) per year for the first two years and 3 per cent of EDC per year thereafter to the Developer Entities (DE) (farmers/land owners) for delay beyond the date of completion of the construction by DE or five years whichever is later till the external development works are completed.

Also, farmers who are willing to participate in land pooling but are unable to pay EDC would be allowed to give up a part of the returnable residential land. In such cases, they will get 35 per cent of the returnable residential land instead of 43 per cent. This will be exercised at the time of submission of applications for participation in land pooling.

Developer Entities (farmers/land owners participating in Land Pooling) shall mandatorily undertake construction of houses for EWS amounting to 15 per cent FAR over and above the maximum permissible residential FAR (400 per cent). The EWS housing will be constructed as an independent block. Also, the developer entities have to ensure that entire FAR for residential purposes will be utilised.

Under the land pooling policy, which was notified in September 2013, landowners can pool their land for development by DDA. But instead of compensation, the owners will get 48-60% of the land back after the authority has set up the infrastructure.