Urban ministry unhappy with DDA's 'private' plan

Authority retains the right to acquire land under the new policy.

The Delhi Development Authority's (DDA’s) new private participation plan, a road map to make available for urbanisation 27,628 hectares (ha) of land, nearly 19 per cent of total land in Delhi, has created ripples in the urban development ministry.

The land, made available after the notification of Master Plan 2021, was supposed to be developed with private participation. But sources say the DDA is reluctant to let go of its privileged position as Delhi’s largest, legitimate land owner.

“The DDA was set up in the 1950s to ensure that Delhiites were not victims of real estate speculators and can get affordable, quality housing. In the last fifty years or so that has not happened. Delhi has a shortfall of 66 per cent housing and 84 per cent commercial space,” said the source.

The DDA acquires land under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and has lately auctioned parcels of land to the highest private bidders. “This way, only the DDA gets to make money, not the original owners, who get government rates, nor the private builders, and certainly not the end-use customer,” added the source.

Officials in the ministry had hoped that the private participation policy would change all that and allow private real estate groups to acquire land. This, however, has not happened, with the policy paper clearly stating that the DDA would retain its sole right to acquire land in Delhi and under the same piece of legislation.

The ministry has pointed out three main problems with this policy so far. “It is still largescale land acquisition, it is not viable for private players, and largescale displacement will lead to a lot of litigation,” said an official.

The proposed land-use distribution for urban extensions envisages keeping 50 per cent of the land available for residential purposes, while the rest will be distributed greens, commercial and community land. Of this residential land, 20 ha packets will be demarcated by the DDA as residential. and thus the net residential land would be 25 per cent of all land.

Private players would be allowed to convert residential land into commercial only if permission was granted by the urban development ministry. The private player will asked to pay a licence fee, roughly equal to Rs 6.75 crore per acre. The ministry has objected to such steep fees, over and above the cost of bidding for land.