The ambitious land pooling plan of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was approved in an authority meeting held on Friday which was chaired by the newly appointed lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung, for the first time. The proposal which is a part of Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, will pave way for easier acquisition of land for housing projects.
Through its exclusive land pooling policy, the DDA aims at involving private parties in planning and developing land pockets into residential and commercial components. “The land pooling concept envisages consolidation of the privately owned land by its owners where the pooled land is to be surrendered to DDA, which in return shall give back part of the land to the owner or developer in certain percentage,” said Neemo Dhar, PR advisor, DDA.
Besides, the Board of Enquiry and Hearing has recommended the DDA to make it into two categories. “There will now be two categories under this policy. First category will be that of land having a size of 20 hectares and above. The second category will include lands having an area of two hectares to 20 hectares. The minimum land pooling size for the second category has now been reduced from three hectares to two hectares,” she informed.
“The percentage return in the first category will be 60 per cent which comprises of 53 per cent to residential utility, five per cent to commercial and two per cent to Public & Semi- Public (PSP). For the second category this will be 48 per cent where 43 per cent will be for residential use, three per cent for commercial and two per cent for PSP,” said Dhar. The meeting also decided on increasing the ground coverage from 33 per cent to 44 per cent. “For housing provision for economically weaker sections of the population, the private party is required to hand over 50 per cent of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) units to the DDA, while the remaining 50 per cent will be at their disposal for sale at market rates,” read a notification issued by the authority.
Meanwhile, the authority also cleared the change of land use for over half a dozen projects related to hospitals, Delhi Metro and other community services. This included 32.75 hectares of land at village Mahipalpur for development of cremation ground, fire station and community centre, a hospital, police post and some area under greening and residential purposes.
Also, it allowed change of land use from residential to public and semi-public facilities of area measuring 1.17 hectares for Ram Manohar lohia Hospital super-specialty block at G Point Gole Market.
The DDA has also approved modifications with respect to motels. The ground coverage of motels falling in the air funnel where there are height restrictions, has been increased from 40 per cent to 50 per cent to facilitate achieving enhanced FAR.