Delhi Master Plan 2021

The Master Plan of Delhi 2021 has been in force since 2007. Once this is reimplemented with the new land development policy, Delhi will also offer options to thousands of home buyers. The capital city has still 27,628.9 hectares of land to fulfil the dreams of thousand of home buyers.

The DDA (Delhi Development Authority) has earmarked land at Zone J, K1, K2, M, N, L, O, P1 and P2 for raising residential projects. According to the projections in the master plan, nearly 24 lakh residential units are required for an estimated 23 million people by 2021.

According to the master plan, Delhi will be slum-free in the next 10 years by providing rehabilitation packages (built-up houses with all civic facilities) to slum dwellers. For this DDA has identified 23 sites (slum areas) for rehabilitation. The master plan of Delhi includes chapters like regional and sub-regional frame, population and employment, Delhi urban area 2021, social and physical infrastructure, mixed land-use regulations, development code and plan review and monitoring.

The master plan 2021 has allocated 277 sq km for future urbanization by 2021. In the last fifty years, DDA has acquired 75,609.84 hectares and developed it for residential, recreational, commercial and institutional purposes.

Now, with better and holistic planning, DDA intends to set new records and provide more amenities to people. Delhi is spread over 1,483 sq km and divided into 17 planning zones: 1,159 hectare in Zone-A (Old City); 2,304 hectare in Zone-B (City Extension and Karol Bagh); 3,959 hectare in Planning Zone-C (Civil Lines); 6,855 hectares in Zone D (New Delhi); 8,797 hectares in Planning Zone-E (East Delhi); 11,958 hectares in Zone-F (South Delhi I); 11,865 hectares in Planning Zone-G (West Delhi I); 5,677 hectares in Zone-H (North-West Delhi I); 15,178 hectares in Zone-J (South Delhi II); 5,782 hectares in Zone K-I (West Delhi II) and 6,408 hectares in Zone K-II Dwarka; 22,840 hectares in Zone-L (West Delhi III); 5,073 hectares in Zone-M (North West Delhi II); 13,975 hectares in Zone-N (North West Delhi III); 80,70 hectares in Zone-O (River Yamuna-River Front); 9,866 hectares in Zone P-I (Narela) and 8,534 hectares in Zone P-II (North Delhi).

Ram Gopal Gupta, a policy maker and city planner, says: “In the last 40 years, DDA constructed only 3.5 lakh flats. However, these did not suffice even for 1% of Delhi’s population. Due to lack of housing facilities in Delhi, 10 lakh people are dependent on nearby sates and metro cities in the NCR belt. According to records, DDA was constructing 10,000 flats every year 15 years ago, while in the last 10 years it managed to build 54,000 flats. Today, DDA is not in a position to construct even 5,000 flats a year. The dramatic growth in Delhi’s population has led to congestions and shortages of civic amenities. One of the main causes for this spurt in population is the migration of people into the city from Bihar, UP, Punjab, J&K, West Bengal, Orissa, etc.”

Solution

Today, the NCR cities are best suited to take the burden of housing from the national capital. The NCR has a total area of 33,578 sq km and includes parts of three states, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, with Delhi as a full state.

The NCR is also characterized by the presence of ecologically sensitive areas like the extension of the Aravali ridge, forests, wild life and bird sanctuaries; the river systems of Yamuna and Hindon, and is a dynamic rural urban admixture.

Sub-regions of NCR

The Haryana sub-region comprises nine districts: Faridabad, Gurgaon, Mewat, Rohtak, Sonipat, Rewari, Jhajjar, Panipat and Palwal, together constituting about 40% of the region.

The Uttar Pradesh sub-region comprises five districts: Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahr, and Baghpat, together constituting about 32% (10,853 sq km) of the region.

The Rajasthan sub-region comprises Alwar district and constitutes about 23% (7,829 sq km) of the region. The NCT (National Capital Territory) of Delhi constitutes about 5% (1,483 sq km) of the region.

Development

In recent times, there has been a tremendous growth of Delhi and the NCR in terms of infrastructural developments and with the advent of major realty players like DLF, Ansal API, Ansal Housing, Unitech, BPTP,Amrapali, Supertech, Gaursons, Assotech, Parsvnath, Ashiana, TDI, Anantraj Group, Omaxe, JP, Antriksh, etc, the areas have been much in news.

Areas like Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Manesar, Faridabad, East Delhi Extension, etc, have been the areas fulfilling the housing needs of millions of people who live in and around Delhi. With the pressure of increasing population, unavailability of land, and lowering of water table, etc, developers are migrating to new places in the NCR to raise residential and commercial projects.

Rehabilitation scheme for slumdwellers

A novel project proposed by DDA, the “in situ” rehabilitation scheme, moves away from the agency’s previous model of shifting slumdwellers to the city’s fringes as part of rehabilitation package. For this, DDA has indentified 23 sites (slum areas). Consultants have already been appointed for 13 sites.

The Kathputli colony near Shadipur Depot of North Delhi has been taken up in first phase. Tenders will also be floated for the other 22 identified sites. Raheja Developers has been awarded the first of its kind, in situ slum re-development project over 5.22 hectares at Kathputli colony by DDA.

The project envisages construction of 2,800 EWS units (with built-up area 30 sq metres per unit) with community facilities like a multi-purpose hall, Basti Vikas Kendra, a health centre, a Sishu Vatika, etc. Arabtec, the firm which built Burj Khalifa in Dubai, will construct these 2,800 EWS houses and also the commercial complex under the slum redevelopment public-private partnership project between Raheja Developers and DDA, in a time-bound contract of two years.