Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri and Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday launched the web portal for the much-awaited land pooling policy, which aims to provide 17 lakh houses to around 76 lakh people in the Capital.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Puri said that with applications to the land pooling policy now open, the pressure on unauthorised colonies in the Capital would be eased.

Parcels of land

“Vigorous urbanisation in Delhi has created a huge pressure on land. The entire idea about land pooling is that small pieces of land will be aggregated into large parcels of land, where subsequently development work will be carried out. With the policy, people will be able to shift from unauthorised to organised and predictable housing,” said Mr. Puri.

The Minister added that with respect to regularisation of unauthorised colonies, the Delhi government has “not been on board”.

The web portal will be open for a period of six months to ensure maximum participation and pooling in the identified sectors, said officials of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

“The web-enabled interface is for inviting ‘Expression of Willingness’ for participation where stakeholders may come forward to register on the website. On successful registration, an acknowledgement receipt will be issued. However, this registration shall not be treated as certification by the DDA of any kind and will not entail to any verification of the registered land parcel on the said land,” explained a DDA official.

Stating that the policy is “an idea whose time has come”, Mr. Baijal said, “This is an alternative method of development through public-private development as opposed to one where large-scale land is acquired by the DDA and then developed. This is something that we have been waiting for a long time in Delhi, the seeds of which was sown in the Master Plan for Delhi-2021.”

Landowners with a minimum of two hectares land will be eligible to participate in the policy. A particular parcel of land will be developed only when 70% of contiguous land is accumulated, states the policy.

Help desks to be set up

DDA Vice-Chairman Tarun Kapoor said that help desks will be set up at various centres to facilitate interested stakeholders in applying to the policy.

The policy is applicable in the urbanisable areas of urban extensions of the Capital, comprising 95 villages. These have been divided into five zones that include 109 sectors, said a DDA official.

“The entire pooling policy is participatory in nature. The entire process of pooling and development shall be taken up by farmers, developer entities and consortiums shall be involved to participate in all aspects. The DDA will act as a facilitator and planner and help develop common facilities and infrastructure,” the official said.