14/08/2015
UD Ministry clears land pooling policy with five amendments
New norms:According to officials, the plan will be operationalised in two months
New norms:According to officials, the plan will be operationalised in two months
Changes will let owners to pool land for development by DDA
Decks have been cleared for the ambitious land pooling policy of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as the Union Urban Development Ministry on Tuesday approved regulations for its operationalisation.
The Ministry, however, issued the notification with five amendments aimed at ensuring timely completion of real estate projects with all necessary infrastructures. According to officials, the plan will be operationalised in two months from now.
The changes include penalty on the part of the DDA and the appointed developer in case of failure to meet the stated deadline, helping farmers in paying development charges, ensuring mandatory housing for economically weaker sections (EWS), transparency in allotment of returnable land and full utilisation of approved floor area ratio (FAR).
The policy of land pooling will allow land owners to pool their land for development by the DDA. However, instead of compensation, they will get back 43 per cent to 60 per cent of land after development of infrastructure by the DDA. This they can keep for themselves or give to private developers.
Under the policy, the DDA will be responsible for overall planning and redevelopment of the land while encouraging the participation of the private sector. The private sector, on the other hand, will be responsible for assembling land, which will then be made available to the DDA for redevelopment. Officials said the move will help harness private potential in land assembly and infrastructure development, thereby shifting the DDA’s role to that of a facilitator.
The redevelopment can range from constructing group-housing societies and providing infrastructure to farmers.
According to the amendment, in case of any delay in completion of the development by land pooling agency, the DDA shall pay a penalty of two per cent of External Development Charges (EDC) per year for the first two years and three per cent of EDC per year thereafter to the Developer Entities (DE), that is the farmers/land owners, for delay beyond the date of completion of construction by DE or five years, whichever is later till the external development works are completed.
Besides, farmers who are willing to participate in land pooling but are unable to pay the EDC will be allowed to give up a part of the returnable residential land. In such cases, they will get 35 per cent of the returnable residential land instead of 43 per cent. This option shall be exercised at the time of submission of applications for participation in land pooling.
The DDA shall also devise a computerised system for prioritising applications received for allocation of plots of returnable land. This will be based on a computerised algorithm on the basis of month-wise grouping to ensure transparency. The DEs will mandatorily have to undertake construction of houses for EWS amounting to 15 per cent FAR over and above the maximum permissible residential FAR (400 per cent).
