Delhi: Centre’s push for three DDA sub-cities in Rohini, Dwarka, Narela

The Union urban development ministry has asked Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to expedite the process of building three-sub cities, which has been in the pipeline for a year.

The DDA is planning three new sub-cities on 677 hectares of land in Rohini, Dwarka and Narela. A total of 259 hectares of land has been identified in Rohini, 218 hectares in Narela and 200 hectare in Dwarka for the purpose.

In a meeting, chaired by secretary (housing & urban affairs) Durga Shanker Mishra on Friday, the ministry asked Delhi Development Authority to invite bids for building integrated cities by the second week of September this year.

Mishra also urged the land owning agency to be more “pro-active” in making Delhi a world-class capital city in the meeting, in which senior DDA officials including vice-chairman Udai Pratap Singh, was also present.

In 2016, then DDA vice chairman Arun Goel had told Hindustan Times that the project has got the approval of the ministry and departments concerned and DDA would invite consultants for preparing a detailed report in a couple of months. The project, however, got delayed.

A senior DDA official, however, said that the current hiatus should not be read as ‘delay’, as it takes time to start project of such big level. The DDA has proposed a fresh deadline for the project.

The agency will select developers by October, 2017, and a detailed project report will be prepared by April 2018.

The construction of houses will begin in December 2018 and be completed in 2021.

The housing agency is contemplating the building of new cities on the concept of transit-oriented development. It means that the area will have accessibility to public transport such as Metro trains and DTC buses.

Secondly, markets will be built in a way that people do not have to depend upon personal vehicles to reach there. There will also be space for office complexes, said a DDA official.

The plan also includes a proposal to provide free Wi-Fi facility and adequate green spaces for parks and plantation along the roadside, he added.

“A major problem that Delhi is facing is that our roads are designed in a way that they are car-friendly and not pedestrian-friendly. We want to reduce people’s dependency of personal vehicles. Therefore, we will also explore the possibility of building a cycle track in these cities,” he said.

Yamuna bank development

DDA has also agreed to start Yamuna bank development works over an area of 500 acres along Old Railway Bridge – ITO barrage stretch by October 2 this year.

The plan is to enhance ecological features of the floodplains, creating a 300 meter wide green buffer from the edge of the river, 100-150 meter Greenway along the road embankment, recreational areas along the greenways, desilting of storm water drains, creation of wetland systems to enable flow of clean water in to the river etc.

A detailed plan in this regard will be prepared by next month.

Road development between Airport and Connaught Place

It was agreed during the meeting that road between Indira Gandhi International Airport and Connaught Place will be developed up to global standards by March, 2020 for which final drawings will be approved by December this year