L - ZONE : South West Delhi ( Dwarka Extension )

 

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in a landmark decision has approved a path-breaking policy based on the concept of pooling of agricultural land to accommodate the increasing demand of urbanization.

The revised policy on the subject notified on September 5, 2013, has been incorporated in the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD-2021). This is not only going to increase construction activity in Delhi, it will also enable end users buy property in Delhi at prices that are relatively affordable compared to other parts of the city.

Thanks to this land-pooling policy, people who always wanted to buy a house in Delhi, but could not owing to the affordability factor, can now secure a permanent address in the national capital.

With social and physical infrastructure around the identified zones already in place, these are going to be the most lucrative investment destinations.

The MPD-2021 has identified transformation of Delhi into a ‘Global Metropolis’ as an underlying theme for most of its plan proposals. As per the projections in the master plan, nearly four million residential units are required for an estimated 23 million people by 2021.

The process of acquisition has been increasingly challenged by landowners, moreover, due to low compensation compared to the market value. Therefore, to handle such challenges of urbanization in the national capital, the DDA executed the land-pooling policy.

The underlying principle of the policy is to allow greater private sector participation in planning and development of the city, thereby facilitating the public sector in meeting the growing demands of urbanization.

This covers various facets of development like land assembly, construction, infrastructure creation, capacity building, and provision of essential services and utilities. For this, the underdeveloped rural areas in south, west, and north Delhi have been identified for building five new sub-cities on the lines of Rohini and Dwarka. The DDA has earmarked land in Zones J, K, L, N, and P for urban extension.

The plan envisages residential real estate development across all categories—plotted, high-end, mid-end apartments, and housing forEconomically Weaker Sections (EWS) within the city. From an investment perspective, the land in Zones J, K, L, N, and P earmarked for urban extension, once developed, will be the most lucrative destination in the Delhi NCR by a wide margin.

 

The new land policy is based on the concept of ‘land pooling’ where the land parcels of individuals or group of owners are legally consolidated by transfer of ownership rights to the designated land-pooling agency, which later transfers the ownership of a part of the land back to the landowners for development of those areas. Landowners, including farmers, can form associations and engage private builders to consolidate their land parcels for development.

Balvinder Kumar, vice-chairman of DDA, said that around 24,000 hectares is likely to be made available for development under the scheme. Nearly 21,000 hectares will be available for residential purposes while around 2,073 hectare will be allocated for commercial activities in the periphery of the existing city.

According to one estimate made by DDA, for every 1,000 hectare of land pooled, the gross residential distribution provides around 50,000 dwelling units for EWS housing. This means that nearly 12 lakh housing units are likely to be developed for the economically weaker sections. Under the scheme, there will be two categories of land pooling. Under Category I, total land area pooled should be between 20 hectares and 60 hectares. Under this category, 60% of the land pooled will be returned to a developer entity and the rest 40% will be kept by the DDA as a cost and the land utilized to develop external infrastructure.

Under Category II, the land-pooled area should be more than 2 hectares and up to 20 hectares. In this case, the DDA will retain 52% of the land for infrastructural development while it will turn over 48% of the land to the developer entity.

 

Out of these 5 upcoming zones L zone near Dwarka is considered among the best zone in terms of connectivity , basic infrastructure , facilities and investment due to nearness to IGI- Airport and Gurgaon.