Thursday 9 July 2015

Delhi Budget: What’s in store for housing, infra?

In order to boost up the housing and urban development in Delhi, the AAP government has allocated Rs 1,793 crore in the Delhi Budget 2015. In the budget speech, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “We've taken into account expectations and aspirations of Delhi people while preparing this budget. We want to develop Delhi into a world-class skill centre through this budget. This is a budget for the 'aam aadmi'.”

According to Sisodia, the action plan for Delhi is:

The government will expedite the process of registration of unauthorised colonies and soon come up with guidelines for registration of houses.

To address the problem of unauthorised colonies, the government will ensure that people are able to transact their assets legally and register their properties without any insecurity.

To check unauthorised construction in future in Delhi, Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) will provide satellite image data regularly to Revenue Department marking any new unauthorised construction for appropriate action by authorities.

For six pilot unauthorised colonies, the government will be sending the boundary maps to the Municipal Corporations. Guidelines for registration rates will also be introduced in sometime and the unauthorised colonies will receive basic infrastructure.

Government has proposed utilization of available housing stock and vacant lands to kick-start a slum redevelopment program. For this, cooperation and consultation will be taken from Delhi Development Authority, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and other stakeholders including private developers.

To address the issue of decongestion of Delhi city, the government will pursue various initiatives such as early completion of Western Peripheral Expressway, Regional Rapid Train systems, Metro Phase III-IV, Transit Oriented Development, improvement of road and work infrastructure etc.

Rohan Sharma, associate director – research & real estate intelligence service, JLL India says, “Since the Delhi Development Authority is not under the control of the Delhi government but is controlled by the Central government under the urban development ministry. It is unlikely that the Delhi budget will have a major impact on the real estate in Delhi on a standalone basis.

The budget lays a lot of emphasis on the redevelopment of existing slums while providing ownership rights to resettlement colonies’ dwellers. It also has provisions for creation of civic infrastructure in slum clusters and unauthorised colonies.

An increased budget outlay will be dedicated to creating infrastructure which is deeply lacking in unauthorised colonies and slum clusters. For such works, initial demarcation of boundaries of such clusters will need to be done and approved by the local municipal authorities before work can begin in the ground.

Housing plans for the middle class and poor segment

Unauthorised colonies will be brought under the development regulations to prevent illegal construction. It will additionally be added to the revenue stream of the local municipalities with creation public infrastructure (power, water, etc.) through higher investment.

How soon will the unauthorized colonies get basic infrastructure?

Sharma says, “The infrastructure development works are likely to start slowly as area boundaries are to be demarcated before such work can start and execution is likely to take time. The housing plan for the EWS and affordable housing segments is likely to follow the umbrella policies in this regard.  This is so because the government can only undertake housing projects on its own lands and will have to depend on the DDA largely for fulfilling its promises on the housing front, where the larger control rests with the latter and the central urban development ministry.”

The fulfillment of the plans chalked by the government largely depends upon efficient coordination between the central and state government. For now, you need to wait and observe whether promises of meeting the housing needs of EWS people gets accomplished.

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