Green housing projects along Metro corridors soon

People prefer living in a house that promises good ventilation and abundant sunlight -- a luxury in Delhi, where houses exist cheek by jowl. Sidhartha Roy reports.

People prefer living in a house that promises good ventilation and abundant sunlight -- a luxury in Delhi, where houses exist cheek by jowl.

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The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), however, plans to bring about a change.

The DDA, along with the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning & Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC), is planning transit-oriented development (TOD) in the capital.

This means intense mixed land use development along Metro corridors. According to the draft TOD policy, all residential buildings in the two kilometre-wide TOD zone should have maximum possible access to sunlight and proper ventilation.

“All residential buildings should be oriented to face the north-south direction so that all dwelling units in a building should get at least two hours of sunlight in at least one room even on the shortest winter day of December 21 (winter solstice),” said a senior DDA official, who did not wish to be named. Also, no building should block sunlight to neighbouring buildings.

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The TOD aims intense development around transit corridors for easy public transport accessibility for a maximum number of people, which will mean lesser dependence on private vehicles. The intense development, however, is also planned to be completely ‘green’ development.

For the Phase I of TOD, five Metro corridors, including the Karkardooma pilot project, have been chosen - Chhattarpur to Arjangarh, Peeragarhi to Tikri Kalan, Dwarka Mor to Dwarka Sector-21 and Nehru Place to Badarpur.

The green initiatives planned in the TOD zones include recycling and reuse of wastewater, better water management for both potable and non-potable water and rainwater harvesting.

Rainwater harvesting has been made mandatory for all buildings, irrespective of project size. Even rainwater from roads would be reused after primary treatment.