'DDA working on feasibility of webcasting housing scheme draw'

The much-awaited draw of the lots for the flagship 'DDA Housing Scheme 2014' next month, could be seen online by people, as the housing authority is carrying out a feasibility study to webcast the entire event, a top official said today.
The tentative date for draw of the lots for the new scheme, which offers over 25,000 flats across various categories, ranging from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore, is November 5. The scheme closed on October 15 and has received 8.5 lakh applications.
"We have already initiated the feasibility study to see if we can webcast the entire procedure. We are already in talk with vendors in this regard," Director (Systems) of DDA, V S Tomar told PTI.

He said the decision to this effect was taken by the DDA's vice-chairman, in a recent meeting, after getting suggestions from people living in India and abroad, on the scheme.
"We had suggestions from Indians living abroad, if the draw process could be webcast online. So far, we have received about 600 suggestions online and people have also approached us in person, with suggestions to this nature," Tomar said.
He said, if the proposal turns out be "cost-effective", DDA would be "able to implement" it.

"The current technological constraint is that as long as 5,000 viewers come online for the webcast, the system works, but there is a chance of it crashing, if it goes beyond. So, we need to look into that aspect also," he said.

"We could introduce a registration process where in we could cap the number of online users, to avoid any crashing, but right now, we are waiting for the feasibility report," he said.
Gearing up for the draw, the DDA has planned to dedicate a server to deal with the anticipated "rush of online traffic".
"The website had crashed during the launch and the draw time of the last scheme (DDA 2010 Housing Scheme) also, and we so we are taking all precautionary measures this time," Tomar added.
"We will be setting up a dedicated served around the last week of this month, and it will have load-balancing facilities, to avert chances of crashing the website due to heavy traffic," he said.

The procedure for the draw has also been uploaded on the website and applicants can now also check the status of their application online.