How DDA's Land Pooling Policy Will Urbanize Delhi

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government will unveil its smart city project on June 25, 2015. In Delhi, the smart city project will accelerate urbanization by allowing many sub-cities to emerge through the new land pooling policy developed by the Ministry of Urban Development . Under the land pooling policy, landowners in Delhi can hand over their land to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which will then transfer it to developers of real estate in Delhi to develop the land and build adequate infrastructure necessary to urbanize Delhi. After the land is developed, DDA will give back landowners 48-60% of the land with the rest of it remaining with real estate developers.

Why is land pooling a better way to acquire property in Delhi than other compulsory land acquisition schemes?

1. Under land pooling policy, land will not be forcefully acquired from landowners. Through land pooling, real estate developers will be able to acquire from landowners, who are willing to give away their land.

2. Usually, when land is acquired by the government, landowners are not sufficiently compensated. When government or private industries develop infrastructure, the value of the plots near where land is acquired will rise in value. But often, the landowners from whom the government acquired land do not benefit from the deal. Under land pooling, as they receive nearly half of the property with developed infrastructure, landowners will be the greatest beneficiary of the process.

3. Many economists and urban policy experts had proposed leasing land so that farmers can remain landlords, earning rents from corporations that acquire land. Under the land policy, instead of leasing land to corporations, government or local authorities, landowners can retain a large fraction of the land they surrend and even benefit from the transaction when the land is developed.

4. Landowners will be able to assemble land voluntarily and hand it over to the DDA. This would accelerate development because the DDA needs large tracts of land for development.