It is the last opportunity for scores of people to construct their properties on plots allotted to them by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional purposes. The DDA has set a final deadline of March 31, 2015 for construction on their plots failing which their property will be seized.
The extension will be given to allottees who bought plots before 2006 and is expected to benefit nearly 1,000 lessees. “The move is for the benefit for the people as a property cannot be converted from leasehold to freehold until there is a building constructed on it. Secondly, it is very easy for people to keep giving penalty for extension for construction which bears no fruit,” said a DDA official. The maximum time limit for construction to be completed on a plot allotted by the housing agency is 10 years, after which a penalty according to the permitted floor area ratio (FAR) is levied on the lessee.
The extension is, however, only for those who have promptly paid their composition charges for previous delays, if any. “This will be the ultimate extension permitted by the DDA. If an allottee fails to complete construction even after March 31, 2015 then the land would be taken back and re-allotted,” added the official. “For the cases wherein construction is in progress and more than one third of the permissible FAR has been achieved or where No Objection Certificate (NOC) is required only for obtaining certificate, the extension of time will be granted as per the existing delegation of powers,” informed the official.
However, a few cases where construction has not been started or is less than one third of the permissible FAR, the authority would consider even their extension on merit basis. “In cases where there has been no construction at all or it is less than one third of the permissible FAR due to encroachment which could not be removed by the DDA or ongoing litigation, then the extension of time (EOT) will be granted at the level of the Vice-Chairman, DDA, on case to case basis after assessing the merit of the request,” said an official. Besides, the DDA
V-C, Balvinder Kumar has also directed officers of the authority to be available at their respective offices between 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm for grievance redressal. “Officials will meet during the scheduled slots on all working days. Our counters are still open for people who want to convert their property from leasehold to freehold. Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and members of group housing societies can also get joint conversion done,” said the official.