L-G nod to develop 95 Delhi villages

New Delhi: In a major boost to the housing projects on rural land, lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal on Friday approved a notification to declare 95 villages as “development areas” under Land Pooling Policy (LPP).

Estimates suggest that 25 lakh affordable housing units could come up in these areas, which will give a major push to planned development in the national capital.  

After approving the notification of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the L-G tweeted, “Approved notification of 95 villages as development areas of DDA. Push for affordable housing, social & physical infrastr. Needs of Delhi (sic).”

Under the LPP, agencies will develop infrastructure like roads, schools, hospitals, community centres, stadia on part of the pooled land and return a portion of the plot to the farmer who can later on execute housing projects with the help of private builders. The L-G office said the 95 villages have been divided into five zones, K-1 (20 villages), L (30 villages), N (21 villages), P-II (23 villages), and J (1 village).

The main feature of the policy is that housing projects could be developed by builders on the returned agricultural land of farmers. Earlier, building housing units on agricultural land of these villages was not allowed, as the Land Pooling Policy (LPP) was not in place.

According to the government, if 50 acre and above of land is pooled by the DDA, the land-owning agency will have to return 60 per cent of pooled land to farmers. In case the land pooled in 5 acres, the DDA will have to return 48 per cent of the land.

The policy implementation assumes significance as the DDA’s Master Plan Delhi (MPD) 2021 proposes construction of 25 lakh housing units by 2021 for which 10,000 hectares of land will be required. Officials said that the DDA will be responsible for the development.