DDA to start work on 26,500 EWS flats, tenders for six projects by March

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) plans to start work on 26,500 flats for economically weaker sections (EWS), as part of the in-situ redevelopment of slum clusters under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) by the end of this year. The agency will tender six such projects by the end of March, a senior DDA official said.

These projects, located in Rohini, Pitampura, Shalimar Bagh, Dilshad Garden, Pooth Kalan and Haiderpur, will entail the revamp of 10 JJ clusters.

There are four clusters with over 4,000 households in Rohini’s sectors 18,19 and 20. Similarly, in Haiderpur and Dilshad Garden, flats will be constructed for 1,991 and 2,645 households respectively.

“The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the six is ready. We will float the tender for one of the projects by the end of this month, and the remaining by March-end. Close to 9,600 flats will be constructed under these six projects. Tenders for more in-situ slum rehabilitation projects will be floated in the coming months.”

Of the 675 slum clusters in Delhi, 499 are on Central government land, including plots owned by the DDA and the Northern Railways. Under the Centre’s PMAY, the DDA is carrying out in-situ redevelopment of 376 clusters on its land. In 2019, the land-owning agency started the household survey work in 23 slum clusters.

Currently, the DDA has three in-situ redevelopment projects underway at Katputhli Colony, Jailorwala Bagh and Kalkaji Extension. A total of 5,990 flats are under-construction in these three projects.

A senior DDA official said all the new in-situ rehabilitation projects will be implemented on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis, just like the Katputhli Colony project — the first in-situ project implemented on such an arrangement.

In these in-situ slum development projects, DDA plans to hire a private developer who will construct a multi-storeyed housing facility for slum dwellers (or beneficiaries identified through survey) along with a commercial component on the land where the slum exists.

The commercial component will be used by the developer to recover the total cost of the project. The land will be leased to the developer, the period of which will be decided by DDA.

“Learning from our past experience from Katputhli Colony project, which is likely to be constructed by the end of this year, we eased the development control norms so that the developer can recover the cost of construction and complete the work on time,” said a senior DDA official.