Around four years after the notification of the land pooling policy, Delhi Development Authority(DDA) has two parcels of lands in north Delhi eligible for development by a consortium as per the policy. A DDA official confirmed receiving consensus on or expression of interest in pooling their holdings from landowners in Zone P-II, Sector 8B of the policy.
“We have found these cases eligible under the policy and have issued final notices for the formation of a consortium to pursue the development of the land while meeting all eligibility conditions,” said the official, adding that DDA would only be a facilitator of the process. In order to form a consortium, at least 70% of landowners have to agree to pool their land and 70% of the land needs to be contiguous.
Depending on feasibility, the land developer can now prepare a layout plan for a group housing society or plotted real estate. Prior to this, no development work had commenced under the land pooling policy due to roadblocks in meeting the policy’s criterion of minimum 70% of landowners agreeing to pool their holdings with at least 70% of the land being contiguous.
While the legislative process for the proposed amendments in the DDA act to make land pooling mandatory is still pending, DDA claimed this would not affect progress. “At these places, landowners have already come up with around 70% contiguous land and development work can start on this portion now because the policy’s conditions have been met,” said the official. “As far as the pending mutation in case of some landowners is concerned, the matter of entitlement will get resolved later when things mature.”
Bhupinder Bazad, president of the Master Plan Committee of Delhi Dehat Vikas Manch, said that Delhi Master Plan 2041 would streamline the process of landpooling. “The master plan allows plotted development and not just group housing projects in certain percentages in each sector and an increased floor area ratio depending on the width of the road. As soon as the amendment in the DDA Act is enacted, things will become even more simplified. The amendment process is expected to be completed soon,” said Bazad.
DDA recently extended the deadline for inviting applications to express interest in the land pooling policy till March 31. The policy was notified by DDA in September 2018.Till date, 7,100 applicants, involving close to 7,500 hectares of land of the total poolable land of 19,074 hectares, have expressed interest in pooling, disclosed a DDA official.
Simultaneously, the total number of villages identified for land pooling has increased to 105, after Iradat Nagar village in Zone P-1 was notified to be added in November last year. The 105 villages are divided into six zones, which are further divided into 138 sectors.
Prior to this, DDA had issued provisional notices to landowners who had expressed interest in the policy on condition that they negotiated with and convinced the remaining landowners to pool their land within a period of 90 days. The eight sectors where the provision notices were issued are 8A, 14C, 17A of Zone N; 2 and 3 of Zone P-ll; 3 of Zone L; and 12A and 12C.
