The Hindu 01.02.2014
DDA shelves new housing scheme
To focus on allotting pending flats in Dwarka and Vasant Kunj first
Within a month after it announced to launch a new housing scheme “covering all segments of society” in 2014, the Delhi Development Authority announced on Friday that the agency is not going to come up with any new housing scheme in near future. The agency on January 1 had announced that it would soon launch a scheme to provide accommodation ranging from one-room tenement to three-bedrooms flats.
Mr. Balvinder Singh, who took over as the new vice vice-chairman of DDA last week, said the agency is focusing on “clearing the pending projects before coming up with any new scheme”. He also added that the agency would finally be handing over around 700 flats, pending allotment, at Dwarka and Vasant Kunj in March.
Addressing a press conference after the Board meeting, which cleared the revised budget for the current fiscal and the proposed budget for the financial year 2014-15, Mr. Singh said: “Some of important projects are stuck at different stages. Around 11,000 flats of EWS project in Rohini is still to be completed. We don’t want to face criticism again that we announce project, but failed to deliver on time.”
The last housing scheme of DDA was launched in 2010 when 16,000 flats were on offer in various parts of the Capital like Vasant Kunj, Rohini, Dwarka among others. Hundreds of allottees are still to get physical possession of their flats, while those who have moved into their flats complain about the lack in basic facilities like power and water.
“All the flats at D-6 Vasant Kunj and at Dwarka, where a number of grievances are being expressed have been inspected and will be fully completed by mid of March. All the allottees would be given the physical possession in March. It has also been decided that engineers will be available at the site to ensure possession and to remove the deficiencies which may be pointed out by the allottees,” said Mr. Singh.
Special camp
The officials said the agency would also be holding a special five-day camp starting February 17 to distribute the Conveyance Deed papers to property holders waiting for conversion of their leasehold to freehold.
“Around 3,500 such cases are pending. Around 1,200 of them have to be revisited as per the existing policies. For the rest, since they require some documentation, we would be distributing Conveyance Deed papers to the owner during the camps that would be held in different places like Dwarka, Rohini and Vasant Kunj. A public notice would soon be issued about the details of the camps,” said Mr. Singh.
The officials some of the major decisions taken in the Board meeting include making all the 60 community halls handicapped and senior-citizen friendly by installing lifts; allowing more Floor-Area Ratio to hotels; shifting the residents of Katputhli colony temporarily to a transit camp in Anand Parbat; allow four temporary cinema halls into multiplexes.
“There has been demand of increasing the availability of hotel rooms in the city. As per estimates there are around 10,000 hotel rooms in the city. With the increased FAR, the room availability is likely to increase by around 20 per cent,” said Mr. Singh.
Owing to the stuck projects and several properties of the agency remaining unsold due to “the prevailing market conditions”, officials said, the DDA on Friday revised its revenue receipts for the current fiscal from Rs.7,940 crore to Rs.4,766 crore.
