Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) has begun the process of completing formalities for nearly 4,350 flats that are lying unallotted and unoccupied in northwest Delhi’s Bawana.
According to officials, these flats were built in 2010-11 for the housing needs of thousands of workers who would be employed in the industries in Bawana, Narela, and other industrial areas in the vicinity.
Sources said DSIIDC was asked to build 34,260 low-cost houses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in the first decade of the 21st century, of which 17,660 had been completed and 16,600 were incomplete. The agency had allotted a few hundred flats, and some of them had been taken over by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (Dusib) for allotment to slum dwellers.
Officials said the agency had tried to sell 4,348 flats, measuring between 27 and 32 square metres, in two different residential pockets in 2022 and had even advertised for them, but RERA objected to it.
Now, to meet RERA’s stipulation, DSIIDC has decided to engage consultants to prepare and submit the site plan and other drawings for necessary approvals and non-objection certificates from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Urban Art Commission, Delhi Fire Services, Delhi Jal Board, and DDA, apart from obtaining occupancy certificates for the completed low-cost group housing industrial flats.
Following RERA’s objection in 2022, DSIIDC had argued that these flats were built around 2010 when the regulatory authority was not even conceived, but its arguments were rejected.
“Once we engage consultants, we hope to complete the work within six months. We will again try to sell these low-cost flats to the people working in industries and other businesses in the vicinity,” said an official.
With several cases of thefts of fittings and structural material reported earlier, DSIIDC has also initiated a process to hire security guards for all its housing projects spread across the city. Since a majority of these flats are lying unoccupied and many are in different stages of construction, the flats are in a dilapidated state.
Security personnel will not only have to protect sanitary, water supply, drainage, and electrical fittings and fixtures against theft and breakage, but they will also have to ensure these complexes are not illegally occupied. In case of theft or damage, the security agency will have to provide replacement of the fittings, said an official.
