DDA Land Pooling Policy Portal to Be Up This Month
The long-awaited Delhi Land Pooling (DLP) policy was approved by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) at a meeting headed by Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on 7th September. Now it is awaiting an approval from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Under this scheme, DDA will pool land parcels owned by individuals, a builder or group of owners, then develop the land and return it to the owners. The system is expected to replace the process of land acquisition, wherein the government acquired land by handing over a fixed compensation and the ownership changed hands. The system became unpopular in last few years because of complaints associated with forceful acquisition and low compensation. The new policy is expected to unlock huge parcels of land for affordable housing and development.
The New Land pooling Policy
The policy will be applicable to urban extensions of Delhi. Under this policy, urban land parcels available in the city, especially on its outskirts, will be developed. This development will be done in an efficient and sustainable manner. This will lead to expansion and development of the city in a planned manner by increasing the supply of fresh land. The idea of land pooling is to accumulate small land pieces into a large parcel, develop necessary infrastructure such as sewage system, water supply and drainage, make provision for larger social infrastructure, including main roads and metros, and return the developed land to developers or owners. Portion of this land parcel will be sold by the government for recovering the cost of developing public spaces and infrastructure.
Under the DLP policy, the multiple owners shall be allowed to pool land for the purpose, as per the prescribed guidelines and norms. Land owners offering 2-20 hectares of land will get 48% of the land back, and those offering more than 20 hectares will get 60% back. Owners will be responsible for internal development like infrastructure and sector roads and services comprising power supply, water supply lines, rain water harvesting, etc. falling in their share of land.
Though small size of land will be returned to the land owners, they will however get the access to the services and infrastructure developed by DDA. The increase in supply of developed land parcels will lower of the prices of the property. This policy will also result in bringing better quality gated apartment projects at affordable prices. It will also restrict price escalation in already developed areas like Noida and Gurgaon.
Implementation of the portal
All processes comprising receiving applications, verification, grant of approvals and licenses, etc, for the implementation of the policy will be completed in a time bound manner. TOI was intimated by DDA vice-chairman Tarun Kapoor that the portal would be ready very soon. It is expected that the entire portal will be functional by the end of January.
