Delhi/NCR

Following recent cases of building collapse due to digging of basements in adjoining premises, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has made it mandatory to leave a two-metre space from the adjacent building for excavation of basements in residential colonies. Experts and MCD officials, however, say this order will make it impossible for most house owners to develop basements.

The Master Plan of Delhi-2021 allows wall-to-wall digging of basements. But MCD officials say people often don’t take necessary precautions to ensure the safety of neighbouring buildings. In his order dated December 26, 2011, MCD’s additional commissioner (engineering), Manish Gupta, has directed all zonal offices to ensure that people leave a two metre space.

This provision existed in the MPD-2001, but was revised in MPD-2021 and people were allowed wall-to-wall digging. “As the MPD-2021 is under revision, we have decided to restore the provision relating to construction of basements in residential properties as per MPD 2001. We have taken permission from Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna,’’ said Gupta.

Officials in the building department say plot length in many areas is just 15 m, so residents will not be able to do underground construction.

Source: The Times of India, New Delhi

Delhi/NCR

Delhi Development Authority (DDA) could soon lose its monitoring role over all housing activities in the national capital. The finance ministry has initiated work on creating a new regulator for the capital’s housing sector to replace the DDA, which currently acts as a regulator, a housing board as well as a builder.

The move is likely to face resistance from the DDA which has prepared an ambitious 2021 Master Plan for Delhi that entails planned development of 202 square kilometers to make the capital a global metropolis. The urban development ministry is currently reviewing the Master Plan and considering the issue of appointing regulators for urban governance which could include one to oversee land development authorities.

Top finance ministry mandarins met senior officials of the DDA, the home ministry and the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation last week to kick-start the exercise to divest DDA of its conflicting regulatory roles. “Obviously, the authority is not going to be pro-active about this, so the government will have to drive the change,” said a senior official close to the development.

Land acquisition and allocation by housing boards or urban development bodies generally come under state governments’ purview, but the central government has administrative control over the DDA. The DDA acquires land, develops it and allots it for commercial and housing purposes. It is also in charge of making institutional allotments of land for hospitals, clubs, schools, colleges and religious institutes.

The committee on allocation of natural resources, chaired by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, had urged the government to ‘immediately’ constitute a regulatory body for the housing sector to take over the monitoring and oversight functions from DDA to bring transparency.

The committee’s report, submitted to the Group of Ministers on tackling corruption in June 2011, had said that the presence of a regulator would help provide sufficient housing at reasonable costs with government realising the true value of its land holdings. Pushing for more transparency, the natural resources’ allocation panel had asked that DDA must be asked to put up an ‘Asset statement’ on its website disclosing all lands and assets under its custody.

It had also mooted a centralized land data bank with complete ownership details with the use of satellite images for tracking encroachments and actual land use.

Such a system, with real time updates of all property transactions, will not only improve government revenue collections but also expose the scourge of benami properties in the capital. There are several lacunae in the way the DDA currently functions, often short changing the government’s coffers.

Source: The Times of India, New Delhi

Delhi/NCR

Driving to national highways may be a breeze soon. DDA is planning three concentric ring roads that will connect the city with national highways, thus cutting down on travel time to the NCR.

These roads will be built as the urban extension roads (UER) under Master Plan Delhi, though DDA said issues of land acquisition have to be settled. “We are working on a plan to build concentric ring roads so that people can approach the national highways in 10 minutes,” said G S Patnaik, vice-chairperson, DDA. These UERs will connect NH 1 to NH 8, NH 10 and NH 2.

Though the Haryana government felt that DDA was not taking any steps to construct link roads between the capital and Gurgaon, Patnaik on Tuesday clarified that three link roads had already been included in the zonal plans. These roads will connect Vasant Kunj to DLF-III, Dwarka to Kherki Dhaula on NH 8 and Najafgarh to Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Sonipat.

Patnaik also said that the review of Master Plan Delhi is on with DDA already receiving more than 2,000 suggestions and complaints from experts and the general public. DDA vicechairperson G S Patnaik said on Tuesday that 17 management action groups had been formed to carry out the review process besides an advisory committee and an advisory group working under lieutenant-governor Tejendra Khanna.

“This group comprises town planners, experts and various officials. The suggestions received will be considered by the advisory committee while reviewing Master Plan 2021,” Patnaik said. According to DDA, all suggestions will be compiled and put up on its website.

He also said that DDA favoured transit-oriented development (TOD) along Metro Corridors and that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has already started a survey at Karkardooma station as well as at Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road.

The project includes construction of high-density residential, office and commercial units along the Metro corridor. Patnaik said that DDA favoured the project as it will bring people closer to the Mass Rapid Transit System discouraging them from using their own vehicles and adding to the traffic.

Talking about the projects undertaken and planned by DDA in the year gone by, Patnaik also said that 53 community centres will be constructed across the city and work on 19 of them was already underway. Work on building 20,000 houses for the economically weaker section (EWS) using prefab technology has already begun while the construction of 24,000 flats for the Lower Income Group (LIG) is likely to start soon.

“In all, over one lakh EWS and LIG flats would be completed in the next three years. These units are at various stages of planning and construction,” Patnaik said. He insisted that DDA was giving priority to EWS and LIG housing to reduce the number of illegal colonies in the city.

Though there are plans to introduce housing scheme for the middle class too, Patnaik refused to share the details. However, he added that 12,000 demand letters had been issued to allottees. The remaining 4,000 allottees will get them in the coming weeks. A socio-cultural centre on the lines of the India Habitat Centre is also in the pipeline in Dwarka.

Source: The Times of India, New Delhi