New wave of urbanization IN DELHI NCR

A new proposal in the Delhi Master Plan-2021 will unlock around 21,000 hectares for residential purposes and around 2,073 hectares for commercial activities in the periphery of the existing city, which will set a new round of real estate activity in motion. PRABHAKAR SINHA writes

Delhi may soon see a flurry of real estate activities. A pathbreaking policy, which has been incorporated in Delhi Master Plan-2021, will make available around 21,000 hectares of land for residential purposes and around 2,073 hectare for commercial activities in the periphery of the existing city.
Global consultancy firm, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), says in a report: “Such a large-scale expansion in the urban limits of the city is expected to stabilize property prices, particularly in suburbs, and also spur infrastructural development in these largely peripheral zones.”
According to the projections in the master plan, nearly 4 million residential units are re q u i re d for an estimated 23 million people by 2021. According to the paper, the scale of development in the city outlayed in MPD-2021 has by all standards outweighed the planning proposals of the 1962 and 1981 plan documents and has created need for an ever evolving and dynamic urban planning approach.
The paper said the MPD-2021 has identified transformation of Delhi as a ‘Global Metropolis’ as an underlying theme for most of its planning proposals.
In a marked departure from previous master plans, the 2021 document proposes that the
planning and development of the city not be entirely led by the public sector, and that the private sector, too, must get involved. This covers various facets of development like land assembly, construction, infrastructure creation, capacity building, and provision of essential services. The latest master plan has significant implications for the real estate market of Delhi, CBRE says in the paper. According to one estimate, the prices in these zones, which will be part of Delhi, will be around Rs 6,000 per sq feet.
This will certainly help in reining in the unbridled rise in prices in suburbs like Gurgaon and Noida.
For this, the underdeveloped rural areas in south, west, and north Delhi zones have been identified for building five new sub-cities on the lines of Rohini and Dwarka and some private players are already in negotiations with landowners, planning for development.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has earmarked land in Zones J, K2, L, N, and P2 for urban extension. The plan envisages residential real estate development across all categories—plotted, high-end, and mid-end apartments and EWS within the city.
In this new policy, the DDA has tried to encourage private entrepreneurs to aggregate land through land-pooling policy. The CBRE paper says the land-pooling policy in the plan document, which was recently approved, will allow greater private participation in pooling and development of land.
The land-pooling policy will replace the present model of acquiring land by the DDA. The policy lays down that about 40% of the land will be kept with the DDA for land parcels above 20 hectares and about 60% for land parcels below 20 hectares, the rest being allowed for development by private builders. In lieu of the land that the DDA will keep, the authority will develop external infrastructure like roads, sewer systems, water and electricity supply.
The new policy will allow private players to be more involved in the development process.
Landowners, including farmers, can form associations and engage private builders to consolidate their land parcels for development. The policy allows existing plot owners to pool in their properties to arrive at a plot size of 3,000 sq metres, the minimum requirement as far as the size of the plot is concerned, the CBRE paper said. Likewise, for spurring development and land-pooling in rural areas, the MPD has envisaged the plot size at a minimum of 2,000 sq metres.
Under the new policy, the DDA has also given an in-principle approval to the modification offering relaxation to farmhouses set up in green belts and low-density residential areas in the city. As per the new policy, land pockets of a minimum of 4,000 sq metres (around 1 acre) may be developed as residential plots. The new policy, the CBRE paper said, is expected to benefit nearly 2,400 farmhouses in areas like Mehrauli, Neb Sarai, Chhatarpur and Rangpuri. As per the new policy, owners of farmhouses will be required to cede land for infrastructure projects for construction of roads, etc.