DDA will paint your building, fix worst ones

The Delhi Development Authority has woken up to its responsibilities after Hindustan Times last month highlighted the appaling condition of its housing colonies. Avishek G. Dastidar and Sidhartha Roy report...

If you live in a shabby DDA colony, get ready for a makeover.

HT Image

The Delhi Development Authority has woken up to its responsibilities after Hindustan Times last month highlighted the appaling condition of its housing colonies.

Recently, Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, who is also DDA chairman, directed the state-owned property developer to take charge of the repair and upgrade of infrastructure of old residential buildings.

“The L-G has decided the DDA will form a corpus fund of eight per cent of project cost for maintenance of common areas (stairs, shafts) for 30 years,” said Ranjan Mukherjee, officer on special duty to the L-G.

So, the DDA will paint all three lakh flats it has built since 1968, at a cost of Rs 30 crore. It will also repair 800-1,000 of the worst flats that belong to not-so-well-off owners. In many areas, it will form a 50-50 partnership with upper-floor residents (first floor upwards) to build lifts.

“The L-G feels the DDA’s job in certain areas has not been up to the mark,” Mukherjee said.

In a series of reports between February 22 and 26, HT brought to the fore the dilapidated

condition of DDA flats, which house over 12 lakh people.

“Individual owners take care of their flats but the common areas are nobody’s baby,” said Pankaj Aggarwal, general secretary of the RWAs’ Joint Front.