The prime objective of the DDA team is to study the construction of flyovers and houses not only in Singapore and Thailand but also in China, Japan and Malaysia. Barely two months ago, a team of DDA comprising, among others, three MLAs and two municipal councillors had gone to Singapore to study the housing projects there. Apart from Singapore and Thailand, the previous team had also gone to Vietnam and Phillipines.

They are yet to submit a report and another team is already sitting with bags packed just waiting to go. The team comprises Prakash Narain, Director Transport, R.K. Bhandari, Member engineering, Vijay Risbud, commissioner planning, S.C. Tayal Director material management and A.K. Acharya officer on special duty (OSD) Raj Nivas. The team leaves on November 7 will return on November 22.

DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar said that the team which went earlier would be filing its report. ``It takes time,'' she said. How much time she could not say. OSD Acharya justifies the trip. ``In Shanghai, 120 flyovers are being constructed. We are going to study how they build them so fast,'' he says. Another official going on the trip on condition of anonymity said that India has a lot of poor people and DDA makes very expensive houses. ``We will study how material management and transportation is done efficiently to bring down the cost of the houses,'' he said.

``On the way back we shall stop at Singapore to study housing projects,'' he said. The countries the officials would be visiting in their fortnight-long-trip are China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.