What DDA's Land Pooling Policy Is All About

The Union Ministry of Urban Development on May 26, 2015, approved the regulations for operationalization of the Land Pooling Policy of Delhi Development Authority (DDA). But the DDA said that to implement this, the Delhi government should declare 95 villages in the city as development area, with 89 of them declared as urban villages.

The DDA plans to construct 25 lakh new apartments in Delhi by 2021. For this, the DDA would need 10,000 hectares of land.  According to an estimate by the DDA, 2.5 lakh homes (including 50,000 EWS units) would need 1,000 hectare of land. Hundreds of thousands of dwelling units are likely to come up on the land that would be pooled. Nearly 15% of the area would be allocated to EWS (Economically Weaker Section) residential projects. The DDA expects nearly 20 lakh dwelling units to emerge in 10-15 years in the pooled area.

Let us know about Land pooling:

What is land pooling?

In land pooling, farmers can trade their land with developers of upcoming properties in Delhi or tie up with developers to pool their land, before they transfer it to the DDA. The DDA would develop infrastructure like water supply, sewage, electricity and roads on the pooled land. After developing infrastructure, the DDA would transfer the land back to the owners, retaining parts of the land which is required to maintain the infrastructure it developed.

What would DDA do with the pooled land?

In Category I pooling, for land of 20 hectares and above, the developer of residential projects in Delhi or plots in Delhi would receive 60% of the land while the DDA will retain 40%. In Category II pooling, for land having an area ranging from two hectares to 20 hectares, DDA will retain 52 per cent while the rest would go to the developer. Land pooling is expected to eliminate land shortage in Delhi and facilitate rapid urbanization.

How would farmers benefit from land pooling?

Under land pooling, there would be no forceful acquisition of land. When land is acquired, farmers are often financially compensated or given land elsewhere. But, when land is pooled, farmers would be able to benefit from the infrastructure being developed on the land. Through land pooling, farmers can profit from future development by retaining a share of the land.

Through land pooling, DDA would be going against its earlier policy of acquiring and disposing of land on a large scale, adopted in the 1961 Master Plan. The 1961 Master Plan is effective till now, but isn't sufficient to meet Delhi's growing need to urbanize.