21,000 hectares to be released by DDA for housing
In last one decade the satellite towns of satellite town of Gurgaon and Noida experienced great development primarily because of unavailability of land in Delhi.
However, this may change soon as DDA has approved a policy based on the concept of pooling of agricultural land to accommodate the increasing demand of urbanization. This is a landmark judgement.
Notified on September 5, 2013, the revised policy has been incorporated in the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD-2021). This will increase the construction activities and Delhi and will help end users and investors to buy properties at a great value for money.
The underlying theme for most of the proposals of MPD-2021 has been transformation of Delhi into a ‘Global Metropolis’. Around four million residential units are required for an estimated 23 million people by 2021, as per the projections in the master plan.
MPD-2021 has outlined a grand scale of development in the city which outweighs the plan proposals of the 1962 and the 1981 plan documents. This creates a need for an ever-evolving and dynamic urban planning approach.
In the last five decades, there has been an increasing demand of urbanization in the city. ‘Land Acquisition, Development and Disposal Policy’ of Delhi approved in 1961 is still in operation and acquisition of land and planned development has not matched the pace of demand of urbanisation.
Low compensation compared to the market value is the prime reason process of acquisition has been increasingly challenged by landowners. Land-pooling policy is a step to address this problem.
The policy covers various aspects like land assembly, construction, infrastructure creation, capacity building, and provision of essential services and utilities. Five new sub-cities are planned on the lines of Rohini and Dwarka. The underdeveloped rural areas in south, west, and north Delhi are being considered for this. The DDA has earmarked land in Zones J, K, L, N, and P for urban extension
The development of residential estates is planned across various categories — plotted, high-end, mid-end apartments, and housing for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) within the city. According to a DTZ – a global consultancy firm – the projects score high on almost all the grounds like financial returns, connectivity, social and physical infrastructural development, and global appeal.
In case of land pooling, land parcels of individuals or group of owners are legally consolidated by transfer of ownership rights to the designated land-pooling agency, which later transfers the ownership of a part of the land back to the landowners for development of those areas.
Around 24,000 hectares – around 21,000 hectares for residential and around 2,073 hectare for commercial activities – are likely to be made available for development under the scheme, as pointed out by Balvinder Kumar, vice-chairman of DDA.
Economically weaker sections are to be befitted under the scheme as 12 lakh housing units are likely to be developed for them.
Source: The Times of India
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