17 lakh houses to be built as land pooling policy gets DDA nod

NEW DELHI: The land pooling policy, which has been in the works for the past five years, was finally cleared at the Delhi Development Authority's board meeting on Friday.
It has paved the way for construction of over 17 lakh houses, projected to accommodate 76 lakh people. The policy will now be sent for approval to the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

First notified in 2013, the policy aims to provide affordable housing by circumventing the cumbersome process of land acquisition which is the conventional model of land development.This process often gets mired in litigation due to complaints of paltry compensation. The new policy will allow pooling of land by developers who can retain 60% of the developed land for residential and commercial use apart from providing public facilities.
How pooling will unlock vast tracts of land
Fringe Areas Of City To See Development, But FAR Halved To 200 Due To Scarcity Of Water
The policy will help unlock vast tracts of land for residential and commercial development in the fringe areas of Delhi as it covers urbanisable areas in 95 notified villages. While the policy initially aimed at providing 24 lakh houses, the figure has been revised to 17 lakh as the original 400 floor area ratio (FAR) promised in the policy has been reduced to 200 owing to scarcity of water and other resources.
FAR is the ratio between the total amount of usable floor area that a building has and the total area of the plot on which it stands. This ratio is determined by dividing the total floor area of the building by the area of the plot. “FAR and density norms have been provided for effective resource-based planning. Considering the availability of resources and services, FAR of 200 has been recommended for development in the policy keeping in view availability of water, requirement of land for physical and social infrastructure and impact on environment,” a DDA spokesperson said.
DDA said that a 200 FAR is adequate for developing public and semi-public amenities and will make land pooling economically viable besides achieving a reasonable internal rate of return. “In order to promote affordable and inclusive housing, a 15% FAR over and above the permissible FAR has also been allowed for affordable housing. Out of the total of 17 lakh dwelling units, more than five lakh dwelling units will be created for the economically weaker sections,” he said.
Land owners who possess two hectares or more can take advantage of the policy. A developer entity or individual can participate in the scheme by pooling land parcels covered under a sector as per the zonal development plan. An integrated sector-based planning approach will be followed. A sector will be comprise of 250 to 300 hectares. Once a minimum of 70% contiguous land of the developable area free of encumbrances is assembled, it will be eligible for development.
DDA has introduced the provision of vertical mix of uses (residential, commercial, public) at building level. “Additional development controls have been introduced to regulate building and infrastructure aspects of development. Compensation in the form of tradable FAR has been introduced to allow the developer to utilise the entire allowable FAR within the 60% land,” said the spokesperson.
The service providing agencies will take up development of trunk infrastructure such as roads, water supply, electricity, greens, social infrastructure etc. within 40% of the land area retained by DDA. The developer too will take up internal development of land under residential, commercial and public and semi-public facilities as per the policy.
New developments under the land pooling policy will have to comply with green building norms and use dual pipeline, make maximum use of recycled water for non-potable purposes, conserve rain water and deploy zero waste technology etc. “ A minimum 10% of all energy consumption shall be through solar power or through other renewable energy sources,” the spokesperson said.
DDA is creating a singlewindow system for implementation of the policy and promises to complete all processes, including receiving applications, verifications, grant of approvals and licences etc. in a time-bound manner. A two-stage grievance redressal mechanism has been put in place.