New Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) once had a monopoly over Delhi’s housing sector and played a key role in shaping the national capital. Till just two decades ago, demand for its affordable residential schemes — for lower, middle and high-income groups — was so high that prospective buyers used to rush for the “DDA lottery”, a housing draw through which flats were allotted.
Over the years, however, with an increasing population, the entry of private players and limitations arising from scarcity of land, the DDA has taken a backseat when it comes to building flats.
While demand for DDA housing has dipped since 2014, the processes of construction, development, and rehabilitation on DDA land have gradually shifted to private players.
In the face of these challenges, Delhi’s primary developer has been trying to reinvent itself, moving on to the roles of ‘facilitator’ — planning layouts, giving contracts and approving maps — and regulator, with a focus on ensuring the implementation of the master plan for the city.
The authority last month approved the draft ‘Master Plan For Delhi — 2041’, which would replace the 2021 master plan hat came into force in 2007.
Leenu Sahgal, commissioner (planning), DDA, told ThePrint: “The DDA’s traditional role was to develop land. But by the time of the 2021 Master Plan, major areas of the city had already been developed and these were transferred to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for further maintenance and governance. Only Narela, Dwarka and some parts of Rohini (in the periphery of the capital) are still with the DDA.”
“We are left with little land,” she pointed out, adding that “now, the DDA is working as a facilitator or regulator, with the development work being done by private parties”.
Continuing with the trend of taking over the periphery, the DDA in its new role is involved in land-pooling — in which a group of landowners hand over their land to the government for infrastructure development — and the development of green-belt villages. It is also opening up avenues for construction by private developers and planning to venture into Public Private Partnership projects for slum rehabilitation.
According to some urban sector experts, the change in DDA’s role may not amount to much unless some serious groundwork is done to update its planning system for the changing times.
“The land-pooling policy is a mess. Unless technological advancement, such as digitisation of records and GIS mapping, is taken advantage of to make planning easier and quicker, the DDA may just lose relevance,” A.K. Jain, former commissioner (planning), DDA, told ThePrint, adding, “For instance, in five years and not longer, issues like climate change must be addressed and planning should be done accordingly by development bodies.”
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From high demand for flats to unsold inventory
The DDA was constituted in 1957 and tasked with large-scale land acquisition for affordable housing in Delhi, as well as planning, development and construction of residential projects and commercial lands. Its responsibilities included providing public facilities like roads, bridges, drains, underground water reservoirs, community centres, sports centres, and green belts within the National Capital Territory.
Regulations only allowed the allotment of houses through lotteries, and those who owned property in Delhi could not apply for DDA projects. There was no scope for private developers.
On its website, the authority says it “has constructed, or facilitated construction of, more than 10.65 lakh dwelling units, thereby ensuring shelter for more than half of the population of Delhi”.
In its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, the DDA created about 100 big residential pockets in prime areas of the capital, such as Vasant Kunj, RK Puram, Safdarjung, etc.
According to DDA housing commissioner V.S. Yadav, since there was no pricing formula, the DDA would only charge the amount that went into acquiring and constructing a property, and people could get residences in prime areas for as little as Rs 10-20 lakh for an average-size dwelling.
“But this was before liberalisation (in 1991). There was huge demand for DDA flats and supply could not keep up with demand in the coming decades,” he said.
After the 1990s, the DDA’s focus shifted away from the saturated and core areas of Delhi to the fringes — the sub-cities of Rohini, Dwarka, and Narela.
“There were a few factors that reduced the demand for DDA houses. The development of real estate in nearby areas like Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad was one. Here, the land cost was less and people could get private accommodation at a lower price. So, there was a slump for DDA housing projects after 2014,” Yadav told ThePrint.
As demand for DDA houses dipped, the authority has been struggling with an unsold inventory of about 40,000 flats across Delhi. A lot of the unsold projects are in the peripheral sub-cities.
Yadav explained that in areas like Narela, which are still developing, more and more newly-constructed flats are coming up but infrastructure such as good transport is still lacking. “So, people are sceptical about moving there,” he said.
DDA vice-chairman Subhasish Panda told ThePrint: “We are looking at various policy options to sell off the piled-up inventory, most of which is constituted of EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) flats in Narela. We are actively working on getting the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to lay Metro lines in Narela because it will be a win-win situation. If even half of the unoccupied flats get owners, things will improve.”
According to Yadav, the DDA has slowed down further construction work because of the unsold stock, and is also relaxing norms to dispose of the inventory.
Last year, the DDA approved an amendment to its housing regulations, removing a clause that prohibited people who already own property in Delhi from buying DDA flats.
Other relaxations include offering unsold flats in subsequent housing schemes on a first-come-first-serve basis and allowing buyers to choose the kind of flat they want. Discounts are also being considered on flats that fall in “developing areas” like Narela.
Land-pooling, redevelopment, rehabilitation – DDA’s new work
With housing projects on the backburner, the DDA is now involved in land-pooling and redevelopment/reconstruction across Delhi — concepts introduced in the Master Plan for 2021 — that put the onus of further construction on private developers.
Land-pooling was a policy first notified by the DDA in 2018 and was hailed as Delhi’s largest land reform, aimed at solving the problems associated with rapid urbanisation.
Under land-pooling, landowners must voluntarily form “consortiums” to pool their land parcels in the “urbanised areas” of Delhi. Of the pooled land, 40 per cent is given to the DDA to design and develop with critical infrastructure (roads, schools, hospitals and community centres) through agencies such as the Public Works Department and the Delhi Jal Board, and the rest is returned to the consortium.
Sahgal explained that “the area covered under land-pooling in Delhi is about 20,000-plus hectares”, which has to be developed by the DDA, but its job will only entail preparing layouts and services, while private players will do the actual construction.
The draft Master Plan for 2041 has further introduced the concept of “regeneration” — or reconstruction that reinvents an area — with a focus on the planned development of villages in green belt/agricultural areas of the city. These will be opened up for private real estate as well as construction activities for commercial use, while adherence to green norms will be made mandatory.
The DDA had in 2021 approved the draft Green Development Area Policy to provide an integrated framework for the development of land falling in such designated green belts.
In line with the Union government’s plan to provide housing for all, the authority is also undertaking in-situ slum rehabilitation for 376 jhuggi jhopri clusters. The first to be completed was a high-rise colony in Kalkaji Extension.
The DDA spent about Rs 400 crore on the Kalkaji project, according to senior officials, who also said that such projects would only be undertaken in public-private partnership mode.
Complexities of being ‘facilitator’
In 2015, the Ministry of Urban Development set up the Madhukar Gupta Committee to revisit and redraft the Delhi Development Act, 1957, and to suggest measures to help it evolve from being a developer (of projects) to a facilitator.
In accordance with the panel’s recommendations, the DDA in 2020 prepared a proposal that suggested, among other things, ideal working patterns for the authority, the delayering of hierarchical structures and revising the sanctioned strength of employees — which would involve the abolition of some posts and the creation of new ones. Upskilling and training programmes for the staff were also mooted.
“The changes are still in the pipeline. There have been no objections from the employees to the changes proposed. We are keeping everyone in the loop and are still having discussions over it because we want to reach the optimal structure,” Dr Rajeev Kumar Tiwari, principal commissioner (personnel), DDA, told ThePrint.
Former DDA commissioner Jain, who was a member of the committee, said basic structural changes were required at the DDA since “many people heading it had knowledge about developing cities that would now be outdated and the rules that would have been studied 40-50 years ago will not work anymore”.
“The DDA did not even read the committee’s report (submitted in 2017). There were recommendations that the DDA Act be amended to give the authority the power to make land-pooling mandatory in areas where it is deemed necessary, but that hasn’t happened,” he added.
Jain further said that the DDA becoming a “facilitator” of projects was not a simple matter because private players “are not too fond of taking on massive public projects and that’s why it has to be done very carefully”.
“Land-pooling has to be hybrid. The DDA really needs to put proper infrastructure in place first before housing, otherwise it just won’t work,” he added.
Balvinder Kumar, a former DDA vice-chairman, said the “DDA had realised that it should not just give contracts to private developers to build on its land as the question of maintaining quality is there”.
Expressing doubts over policies like land-pooling, he added, “Facilitation should be in a way that people come on their own to pool land, but that hasn’t happened. Acquiring land, on the other hand, takes time and will be complex. People are too scared of a regulatory framework and that’s why land-pooling has not been successful yet.”
Talking about the DDA’s master Ppan for 2021, Jain alleged that it had not been properly implemented, and this was evident in the mushrooming of unauthorised slum colonies.
Citing the limitations of the new master plan for 2041 (which is a legal document), Jain said the word “development control” had been deleted and “development norms” had been used instead.
Explaining the implications of this, he added: “If a developer builds more than the mandated number of floors, it would not be considered illegal in court according to the master plan, because the word ‘norms’ is not restrictive.”
He further said that “earlier, the Delhi master plan used to be a model for every state but now it’s a model of how planning shouldn’t happen”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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