Five Delhi Metro stations shortlisted for transit-oriented development

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) plans to develop areas around five Metro stations in the national Capital as high-density, mixed-use developments. The plan is part of its pilot project to implement the revised Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) policy, which has been placed in the public domain for feedback.

The Metro stations selected for the pilot project are located in Dwarka Sector 18, Dwarka Sector 21, Mayur Vihar Extension, Mukundpur, Sarojini Nagar and INA (combined). A DDA official say that these stations have been selected based on high footfall and the scope for real estate development.

A senior DDA official said, “Work on the detailed plan for commercial, housing and public facilities will be planned around these stations. The work will be taken up after the policy is notified. We have invited suggestions/objections from the public after which it will be notified.”

The revised policy, which has been hanging fire for the last four years, focuses on high-density, mixed-use developments around transit nodes, instead of a corridor. The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), which has prepared the policy, has done away with the provision for the development of a TOD corridor, as notified by the Union urban development ministry (now housing and urban affairs ministry) in 2015.

According to Jagan Shah, director of NIUA, “In the revised policy, we are focusing on development around transport nodes. Now, areas around select Metro stations will be developed as per TOD norms. This is a major departure from the previous policy, wherein the plan was to develop TOD corridors. Based on an economic rationale, for the initial roll-out, we have defined a threshold for a node to be considered for TOD.”

The revised policy allows a floor-area ratio (FAR) of up to 500 against the 400 proposed in the previous policy.

Urban planning experts have welcomed the decision to implement TOD as per nodes instead of corridors. Sabyasachi Das, former planning commissioner and in-charge of Unified Traffic and Transportation (Planning and Engineering) Centre, said, “In the previous TOD policy, a 500-metre corridor was to be developed on either side of the Metro line. It was difficult to implement it, as all locations may not be viable for planning and development. The present policy proposes node-based TOD, as it is being done some cities abroad. It’s more viable to plan and develop node-wise.”

The revised policy also addresses the issue of multiplicity of authority. The policy proposes setting up of a ‘competent authority’ to approve the plans for the implementation of TOD.

Once the policy is notified, the DDA will start work on five Metro stations selected under the pilot project. With the Central government planning Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridors, DDA officials said that TOD development can happen along such corridors.

A senior DDA official said that the two TOD projects approved by the land-owning agency at Karkardooma (over 30 hectares) and Sanjay Lake (over 10.2 hectares) will have to be reworked as per the revised policy.

First Published: Mar 14, 2019 01:08 IST