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The Delhi Development Authority, the nodal agency for development in delhi, and under the MPD 2021, has approved the land pooling policy, in principle. The said policy awaits the final nod from the ministry of urban development. This policy assures fundamental changes in the way of acquisition and development of land, in Delhi. The MUD would notify the final policy after objection and suggestion by public, are considered and taken into account.

The first Master plan of Delhi was formulated in the year 1961. The policy then of DDA’s was to acquire large chunks of land, directly from the land owners, at a price determined by DDA. DDA would then undertake the master planning and then sell/develop the land, piece by piece. When the land valuations were nominal, this process was acceptable.

In the 1960’s, the private sector wasn’t strong enough in the economy to shoulder the responsibility of urbanization & housing. Hence, the government took on the responsibility, and the land acquisition became the norm. From the 1980’s, the private sector through their incremental ability rightfully started seeking a large role. In the past couple decades, the demand surge from the consumers actually made the supply from the government stable inadequate, and hence, the majority of supply was created by the private sector.

The land valuations rose phenomenally under this increased demand, as well as the higher spend & investment appetite. The government continued to rest on the provisions of the Land acquisition Bill 1894, which was seemingly unfair to the land owners, for compensation as well as rehabilitation. With the many instances which happened in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Noida etc. It became increasingly clear to the government that forceful acquisition cannot be a tenable & legal method.

Also, this private sector sought a more free market methodology, as the government acquisition could potentially be a delaying factor for projects.

Hence, this land pooling policy. Under this policy, land owner can surrender their land holding into the central pool (for the benefit of the readers, the technical terms avoided here), and be stakeholder to the development proposed on their land. Once the land is pooled, the landowner would get back 40-60% of the total land surrendered, as developable land, “For once, the disputes on undervaluation of land for acquisition would be removed, and the process would seem fair to every land owner, irrespective of the size of their land holding, The 40-60% land that DDA would retain with them would be utilized for creation of infrastructure as well as monetize it against specific purposes, by DDA.

 UNDERSTANDING SOME COMMON TERMS

LPA or the Land Pooling Agency refers to the Delhi Development Authority, which is designated to implement LPP (Land Pooling Policy) for planned development as per the Master Plan/ Zonal Development Plan provisions.

Developer Entity (DE) means an individual landowner or a group of land owners or builder who is permitted to pool the land of an identified area

Land Transfer Certificate means the certificate issued by the Land Pooling Agency (LPA) with respect to the exchange of land between the Developer Entity and the LPA.

Final Plot means the parcel of land carved out within the Land Pooling Scheme which is to be returned to the Developer Entity.

ROLES OF DDA

External development in a time bound manner will be the sole responsibility of the DDA.

Preparation of layout plans and sectors plans and declaration of areas under land pooling and the superimposition on the approved zonal plans of revenue maps in a time bound manner.

Development of identified land with the provision of physical infrastructure such as sewage and drainage (physical infrastructure), water supply, provision of traffic and transportation including Metro corridors in a time bound manner.

Wherever the people are not coming forward in the participation of development through land pooling, acquisition of left out land pockets in a time bound manner shall be taken.

LAND POOLING NORMS

Two categories of Land Pooling are present where in Category – l minimum land is 20 Ha (50 Acres) or above and minimum land of 5 Acres is required in Category – ll.

Land returned to the owner in Category – l will be 60% and the rest 40% will be retained by DDA and in Category – ll the DE will get 48% and DDA will receive 52% of the land.

Land returned to the owner for land use in Category – l will be 2 % City Level Public/Semi Public, 5% City level commercial and 53% will be gross residential. In Category – II the land returned to DE will be 2% City Level Public/Semi Public, 5% City Level commercial and 48% Gross Residential.

Floor Area ratio of 250 shall be for City Level Commercial and City Level Public with maximum ground coverage of 40%, and FAR of 400 will be reserved for Group Housing.

Green building incentives will be applicable to Group Housing developed under this policy as per MPD-2021 norms.

EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) housing unit size will range between 32-40 sqm.

THE NEED FOR THIS LAND POOLING POLICY

Being the nation’s capital, Delhi is expected to grow continuously at a very fast pace.

The population of Delhi, according to the statistics, is estimated to reach 230 lakhs by 2021.

Around 45000 families migrate to Delhi every year, and the numbers are expected to grow.

24 lakhs additional flats/houses will be required by 2021 to accumulate such a huge population without being congested.

That is why MPD-2021 and land pooling policies are required and have been already put to action by the government and DDA.

PENALTY CLAUSE

This policy also has a self-imposed penalty clause that is present to enhance efficiency. Under the policy, if there is any delay in the completion of development by the Land Pooling Agency – DDA, the authority will have to pay a penalty of 2% of External Development Charges (EDC) per year thereafter to the Developer Entity (DE) for delaying beyond the fixed date of completion of construction by Developer Entity or five years (whichever later) till the external development work is completed.

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