New Delhi: In 2020, 64-year-old Vinod Garg, who has a construction business, bought land parcels in north Delhi’s Nangal Thakran and neighbouring villages, which are among the 105 villages where residential and commercial projects are proposed under the land pooling policy.
Now, 4 years later, Garg is unsure about his investment.
“While land prices have been stagnant in Delhi for years, they have increased nearly four times in neighbouring villages in Haryana, which are just 10-15 km away from Delhi. There is a huge difference in land prices in villages on either side of the Delhi-Haryana border,” he added.
The land pooling policy, which was proposed in 2007 in the Master Plan of Delhi-2021, is aimed at unlocking hectares of land in villages for planned development of Delhi, and provide nearly 17 lakh dwelling units to meet housing requirements.
The policy was first notified in 2013 and later revised in 2018, yet to be finalised.
According to it, 60 percent of the pooled land is earmarked for the landowners to develop residential projects, while the remaining will be surrendered to the DDA for developing roads, parks and other infrastructural developments.
In 2020, the Narendra Modi government decided to review the policy following muted response from landowners. The policy is now expected to be notified again along with the Master Plan of Delhi-2041, which is pending for nearly 4 years.
Another land policy hanging fire for over a decade is the green development area (GDA) policy, that is meant to regulate development in around 47 greenbelt villages on the periphery of the city and 23 urbanised villages with farmhouses, such as Dhansa, Mitraon, parts of Rajokri, Bijwasan and Kapashera, among others.
Currently, no major construction activity is allowed in greenbelt villages. A policy to regulate development in these areas was first proposed in 2013 and later, the GDA policy was proposed in the draft Master Plan of Delhi-2041.
According to a senior Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) official, “The land pooling policy is being reviewed, as the policy notified in 2018 couldn’t be implemented due to various factors. For the policy to be implemented in a sector, 70 percent of contiguous land is needed. In some land pooling sectors, more than 70 percent of the land has been pooled by land owners, but it is not contiguous.”
Two years ago, the Centre had proposed amendments in The Delhi Development Act of 1957 to pave the way for the implementation of the two policies.
In August 2022, the MoHUA proposed critical and contentious changes in the Act related to the aggregation of land under the land pooling policy. The government proposed a provision, making it “mandatory” for land owners to pool their properties, once owners of 70 percent of the development area in a land pooling sector (measuring between 100 and 150 hectares) have pooled their land. But a final decision is yet to be taken.
“The policy is under review. It will most likely be notified along with the Master Plan of Delhi-2041,” said the official.
The policy paralysis in Delhi has led to stagnant land rates in 105 villages, with landowners unable to encash the value of land, local residents told ThePrint.
Irked by the inordinate delay in the implementation of the two policies, landowners from various villages staged a protest at Jantar Mantar last week.
With the Delhi assembly elections scheduled for February 2025, landowners in Delhi villages said the policy paralysis was going to be an important election issue this time. They want the Centre to notify the policy at the earliest.
“We have been waiting for over a decade for this policy to get the right value of our land. Today, land prices in neighbouring cities are much more than in Delhi; this was not the case in 2006-2007. We can neither sell our property due to low land prices nor undertake any development. We want the government to immediately clear the policy. This time, it will be an important election issue. We want political parties to make it a part of their poll promise,” said Bhupinder Bazad, a resident of Hiranki village in north-west Delhi and president of Delhi Dehat Vikas Manch’s master plan committee.
The issue was raised by BJP MP from South Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, in the recent Parliament session. Speaking to ThePrint, Bidhuri said that he has held three meetings with Union Housing and Urban Affairs minister Manohar Lal Khattar in this regard. “This policy is crucial to stop unauthorised construction on agricultural land in Delhi. Land owners in Delhi’s villages are not getting the right value of their land due to the delay in its implementation. This will not only ensure planned development in the city and also boost the state government’s revenue from property transactions. I have met the minister thrice to discuss its quick implementation.”
ThePrint reached MoHUA via calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
During a press conference earlier this month, Khattar had told the media that the Master Plan of Delhi-2041, including the land pooling policy, is being reviewed, but didn’t give any timeframe for its implementation. “We are carefully looking at all aspects of the Master Plan of Delhi-2041 related to land pooling, in-situ slum redevelopment etc,” Khattar had said at the time.
But with just a little over a month left in assembly elections, politics has started over the issue. Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav said that the land pooling policy has been a “failure”. “This is a big issue in rural areas of Delhi. Land owners have been at the receiving end of a poorly planned policy. The land pooling policy is a failure and the delay in reworking or planning a new development policy has adversely impacted land owners in villages. They are not getting the right value of their land.”
Yadav added, “The central government’s policy completely ignored the land less farmers. There is a need for a new policy which ensures that landless farmers also get some benefit of planned development.”
Senior AAP leader and Delhi Cabinet minister Gopal Rai told ThePrint, “It makes no sense to delay the policy for so long. It is the people who are at the receiving end. When a policy gets stalled, it impacts the overall development of the area. We stand with the Delhi farmers and want it to be implemented soon.”
Real estate experts said Haryana villages located on the Delhi-Haryana border have benefited from quick implementation of development plans, especially in Gurugram.
Ritesh Mehta, Senior Director at JLL India, told ThePrint: “Delhi’s peripheral areas were more expensive than Gurugram till a few years ago but now land rate in Gurugram is almost equivalent to that in Delhi’s periphery. The land rate in Gurugram then was around Rs 10-15 crore per acre, whereas it was around Rs 25-30 crore per acre in Delhi. However, land rates now are almost the same in Delhi and Gurugram.”
One of the reasons for this de-growth in Delhi, Mehta said, is the delay in implementation of proposed land reforms.
“As the policies are yet to be implemented, people are not very clear about how they will be implemented. Another factor is that landowners in these 105 villages are well-established and not in a hurry to sell their land. If you look at Gurugram, people are willing to encash the land value as there is demand for it,” Mehta explained.
The high demand for land in Gurugram is due to the state government’s push for commercial development and swift construction of new sectors after 2006.
Also Read: Delhi’s villages want land reforms, not AAP-BJP bickering — ‘why should we pay the price’
The master plans for Gurugram and Delhi were notified around the same time in February 2007.
Both plans proposed land reforms for planned development of the two cities. Land pooling was proposed in Delhi villages whereas agricultural land was urbanised and new sectors (58 to 115) were planned in Gurugram for commercial and residential projects.
Like Gurugram, Noida in Uttar Pradesh also witnessed large-scale development in the past 10-15 years. But the approach to develop these three cities was absolutely different.
Mudassir Zaidi, executive director, North, Knight Frank India, told ThePrint: “Noida took the acquisition-and-leasehold land route, while in Gurugram the government was the only planning and approving authority.”
“In Gurugram, developers bought or collaborated on land directly with farm landowners. Both the state governments implemented clear policies and pushed for economic activities, which led to demand for commercial, housing and other social infrastructure. But this couldn’t happen in Delhi. Land becomes valuable depending on the use it can be put to. Though land pooling is a good policy, its implementation has become a huge challenge,” he added.
According to real estate experts, Gurugram has grown much faster and better than any other Indian city due to multiple factors, including demand for commercial space.
“A big factor for fast development of Gurugram is that commercial development came up first and residential and retail followed. Because of employment opportunities, there was a demand for residential areas. This was possible because mixed-used development was allowed and sectors were developed by private players while the government developed the basic infrastructure,” said Mehta.
In Delhi, the delay in implementation of policies, multiplicity of authorities, and difficulty in getting landowners to participate has been a major hurdle in planned development of peripheral areas despite demand for housing and commercial projects.
Ramesh Menon, a policy analyst for Delhi Consortiums, a group of real estate policy experts, said, “The problem with Delhi is the multiplicity of authorities wherein there is no coordination between DDA, revenue department and service providing agencies (SPA) to execute a time bound implementation plan. Ideally, DDA should be the process owner with SPAs evolving their respective master plans around MPD2041. More than Rs 1 lakh crore of private capital is stuck as non-performing land assets in Delhi. There is an imminent need to bring all stakeholders along with professional firms to execute the development work in a predictable and profitable manner.”
Referring to high prices in Gurugram, experts said that once a development policy is finalised for Delhi, the land prices will increase in the Capital.
“Agricultural land in Gurugram which has been converted for commercial or mixed land use is today valued around Rs 30 to 40 crore per acre. In Delhi, agricultural land continues to be that of agricultural value as it couldn’t be converted to any other use. Once the land pooling policy is implemented, the value of land will definitely increase,” said Zaidi.
The revised land pooling policy is expected to be notified along with the Master Plan of Delhi-2041.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the nodal agency for implementation of the policy, has started work on the ground to get landowners to participate in it. Since 2018, over 6,000 hectares of land has been pooled in different parts of the city for the implementation of the land pooling policy.
The DDA has got 16,000 hectares of gram sabha land from the Delhi government after 105 villages were declared urbanised in 2018. This land, spread across 105 villages, was earlier meant for development of common facilities in the 105 villages.
Paras Tyagi, co-founder of the NGO Centre for Youth Culture, Law and Environment that works with landowners in Delhi, said that while there has been no significant drop in land prices in villages where the policy is to be implemented, the delay in its implementation has definitely led to development of illegal colonies.
“Land prices have remained the same for some time now. Till a few years ago, people sold land for over Rs 2 crore per acre and even today it is around the same. The biggest problem is the illegal development which is taking place on vacant agricultural land. There is a need to operationalise the policy or come up with a development plan for the villages where illegal construction is coming up,” said Tyagi.
Moreover, the DDA got 16,000 hectares after the 105 villages were urbanised.
“It is the biggest landholding in land pooling policy and GDA policy areas that awaits planning. The DDA needs to start planning for its use and also prepare village development plans so that residents living in these 105 villages benefit from the new urban development,” Tyagi added.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: How ‘unauthorised’ constructions are taking over Delhi’s urban villages marked for DDA land pooling
