The Delhi Development Authority now wants private players to take over development work in the Capital.

Struggling with a shrinking land pool and rising housing requirements, the hurdles in acquiring vacant or agricultural land and disputes over determining and paying compensation after acquisition, DDA has sent a plan to this effect to the Union Urban Development Ministry.

Sent earlier this year, the proposal says the task of pooling and assembling land should be handed over to private parties. The proposal is awaiting notification.

While both DDA and the ministry have earlier admitted to shortage of space, DDA has for the first time admitted in the draft proposal that it has been “unable to develop at a requisite pace”.

Nor has it been successful against encroachments, the draft adds.

As per the proposal, private individuals, group of individuals or big real estate firms should be permitted to acquire land and develop them into housing societies and colonies. All functions that were government monopoly since the DDA came into being in 1956.

The draft policy — “Land assembly based on land pooling and owners participation as an alternative to large-scale land acquisition in Delhi” — says once the policy is implemented, DDA and the government will simply act as facilitator (and regulator) to the developer.

The Scheme
As per the proposal, a group of landowners can come together and collectively develop housing colonies; private developers will also be allowed into the housing sector. “For single players we expect bigger developers to come forward,” a senior official in DDA’s planning department said.

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