Land pooling for housing gets a boost in Delhi as 89 rural villages notified as urbanised

The villages declared urbanised are spread across the North and South Municipal Corporations. While 50 villages are under North MCD, 39 fall under the jurisdiction of the South MCD.

Paving the way for the implementation of Land Pooling Policy, the urban development department of the Delhi government on Wednesday declared 89 villages in the city as urbanised.

The villages declared urbanised are spread across the North and South Municipal Corporations. While 50 villages are under North MCD, 39 fall under the jurisdiction of the South MCD.

The move will allow the development of these land patches under the land pooling scheme aimed at providing affordable housing to city residents.

The villages declared urbanised are spread across the North and South Municipal Corporations. While 50 villages are under North MCD, 39 fall under the jurisdiction of the South MCD.

As per the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, based on a projected population of 230 lakh by 2021, Delhi would require an about 24 lakh new dwelling units.

Till date, the Delhi Development Authority has been able to raise only 11.69 lakh residential units.

The policy allows the land owners in these villages to surrender their land and give it to the DDA along with a development charge. The DDA will give the land to real estate developers.

Once developed, the developer entity or land owners who surrendered their land will get back 48% or 60% of what they pooled in. The rest of the developed area — 52% and 40%, respectively — will be retained by DDA or the private builder who can put it on sale. The housing and commercial projects will have to be developed within seven years. Additional time will be given only on payment of a penalty.

A senior official of DDA said that the role of the land development agency will be mainly of a felicitator in these areas.

“People will have to pool the land and come to DDA. We will examine the proposal and check whether they have been adhering to the rules and guidelines or not. We will also explore the option of how to provide infrastructure such as roads, drainage and sewage system in the area,” he said.

Leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said the move will pave way for providing affordable housing to at least 20 lakh families.

“We have been raising this issue in the DDA authority meetings and demanding lieutenant governor to intervene in the matter and issue notification as soon as possible,” he said.

He said that this was a major roadblock in implementing the land pooling policy.