Centre okays Land Pooling Policy

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

The Minister of Urban Development, M. Venkaiah Naidu, has approved the regulations for operationalization of the Land Pooling Policy of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) with five amendments.

The amendments are to ensure timely development of necessary infrastructure by the DDA, help farmers in paying the development charges, ensure mandatory housing for the economically weaker section (EWS), transparency in allotment of returnable land and full utilization of approved floor area ratio (FAR), sources in the ministry said.

Under the Land Pooling Policy approved today, the farmers and land owners would submit their land to the DDA on their own. There are two kinds of categories of land pooling - the first category of land is from 1 hectare to 20 hectare and the second is above 20-hectare land.

Under the first category, the DDA will return 48 per cent land to land owner or the developer that will consist of 43 per cent for residential use, three per cent for commercial and two for city level public and semi-public facilities, DDA vice-chairman Balvinder Kumar said.

Under the second category, the DDA will return 60 per cent land to developer or the land owner that is 53 per cent residential, two per cent for city level public and semi-public facilities and 5 per cent for commercial use, he said.

FAR 400 per cent for group housing to be applicable on net residential land which is exclusive of the 15 per cent FAR reserved for EWS housing. FAR for commercial buildings is 250 per cent, he said.

Farmers who are willing to participate in land pooling but are unable to pay external development charges would be allowed to give up a part of the returnable residential land.

'Implementation hinges on Delhi Govt's decision'

The actual implementation of the Land Pooling Policy of the DDA now hinges on Delhi Government's decision on declaring 95 villages in the city as development area and 89 of them as urban villages, the housing authority today said.

The Delhi Government has been requested to issue notifications in this regard, said the DDA Vice-Chairman.

"We have requested the Delhi Government to declare the 95 villages as development area and 89 villages as 'urban villages'. Both these requests are pending with the government in advanced stages. We hope it will soon issue the notification on it," Kumar told reporters here.

"As soon as we get it (notification), actual implementation will start in next couple of months and we will issue the deed in this regard," he said.

Both these provisions will help DDA in implementing its Land Pooling Policy. The 'urban village' status to 89 villages will nullify the provisions of Delhi Reforms Act governing them, he said. — PTI