Land pooling policy necessary for planned housing development in Delhi: Balvinder Kumar, vice-chairperson, DDA

NEW DELHI: The choice is between planned and unplanned development to meet the city's housing needs, says DDA vice-chairperson Balvinder Kumar to silence critics of the land pooling policy. While some urban planners say it will put strain on the infrastructure, DDA says it is easier to provide basic amenities like water, sewer and electricity in planned areas as compared to unauthorized colonies.

The land pooling policy, notified by the Union urban development ministry on Tuesday, will result in a housing boom as 24-25 lakh housing units will come up in the next few years. DDA officials say that areas under this policy will witness coming up of high-rises which will be at least 5-16 storeys high. According to a rough estimate, DDA plans to develop 2.5 lakh housing units in an area of 1,000 hectares. There is 20,000 hectares of land available in the city which can be urbanized, say officials. They say these projects will come up only by 2022 as developers will be given seven years to complete the work.

Experts say such sudden and rapid growth will worsen the water and power crisis in the city. Citing Dwarka's example, people say the new planned areas will face a similar crunch in water, power and other basic amenities. "Almost over a decade after developing Dwarka sub-city, DDA had failed to provide adequate water. It was only after seven years of struggle that Dwarka residents managed to get water supply from Delhi Jal Board.

For over a decade, DDA used to supply just 2-3 mgd of water as against a requirement of 15-16 mgd," said Rejimon CK, former president and founding member of Dwarka Forum. Even now, a majority of societies there are dependent on ground water.

DDA officials admit that supplying water and electricity in these areas will be the main challenge. "We can let Delhi grow in an unplanned manner as people will construct houses to meet their requirement or we can provide planned development. Today, technology is available to meet the water and electricity requirement. We will appoint project management consultants who will assist us in developing infrastructure for this," said Balvinder Kumar.

The government is struggling to regularize 1639 unauthorised colonies which had come up in absence of a proper housing policy. Land pooling will limit the scope of unauthorised construction.

The water problem is acute in areas like Najafgarh, Dichaon Kalan, Nangli Sakrawat, Baprola and Bakkarwala where the main project are likely to come up. It may sound bizarre but DDA plans to treat the Najafgarh drain water to meet the demand in an area where the water table is quite low.

"We will treat the Najafgarh drain water. It will be used for drinking and other purposes," says the VC. Reservoirs storing rainwater will also fufill the demand. For power, he once again cites technology, saying solar energy will be harnessed.