lal Dora came into being during the British regime in 1908. It used to be a red line drawn on the maps delineating the village population from the nearby agricultural land for revenue records.
The practice has continued since then and in the ‘lal Dora’ areas the villagers can build houses without building by-laws and can set up certain establishments without permission. The Government had extended ‘lal Dora’ only once after independence in 1947. In 1983, lal Dora was extended in six villages of the city. In other words, residents of extended village abadi would also get benefit as per relaxation in villages falling under lal Dora from building by-laws and house tax. Currently, there is no house tax up to 200 sq metre plots and houses and it is free from building by-laws in villages falling under lal Dora.
lal Dora was exempt from the building by-laws, and strict construction norms and regulations, as regulated under the Delhi Municipal Act. There was /is no need to apply for the building sanction plans etc. In 1963, the MCD passed a notification, which did not make it mandatory for building sanction plans to be passed for the urban lal Dora lands too. Though the term lal Dora applies to both Rural and Urban villages, the thin dividing line has vanished over the period of time, and prime areas of Delhi at present (though still classified as lal Dora) operate commercial and high end residential areas.
