Delhi government paves way for affordable housing

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Paving the way for affordable housing, the Delhi government is going to declare 95 villages as "Development Area", allowing the DDA to implement land pooling policy there, Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday.

Jain made the announcement after Lt Governor Anil Baijal approved the Delhi Development Authority's land pooling policy.

The Minister said the move would clear the decks for construction of around 20 to 25 lakh homes in the national capital, thereby making them more affordable for end users.

Talking to reporters here, Jain said the government notified 89 villages of Delhi as "urban villages" on Tuesday while six others were already declared urban.

"In next couple of days, we would declare these villages as 'Development Area' under Section 12 of the DDA Act. Soon after that, the DDA would be able to go ahead with the land pooling policy," he said.

Under the policy, the land owners in the villages can pool their land together and give it to the DDA, which would return 48 to 60 per cent of the developed land back to them, Jain said.

He added the rest of the land would be used to build parks, roads, schools and other public facilities.

"The returned land would be used by the owners only for building multi-storeyed flats which would provide affordable housing to the people of Delhi."

Jain said around 20 to 25 lakh houses would be built under the policy over the next five to 10 years on around 40,000 acres of land.

He said the DDA had also agreed to give land free of cost to the Delhi government for building schools, hospitals and other public facilities.

Out of the 89 urban villages, 50 are located in north Delhi and 39 in south Delhi.