DDA to commence new housing scheme with 12,000 flats in February

Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) is likely to commence new Housing Scheme with 12,000 flats in February. It earlier was supposed to start on January 26. This year application forms would be available both online and offline. This year, DDA is also taking due care of providing basic infrastructure around flats like link roads, street lights.    

"We had a January target but people were reeling under the impact of demonetisation and bank transactions were getting difficult, so it is postponed" a source said.

A senior DDA official, when contacted said, "Certain pockets of areas falling under the scheme lack basic infrastructure around flats like link roads, street lights, and so we will address these issues. The new scheme should be out sometime in February." Out of the total number of flats, most of them in Rohini, Dwarka, Narela, Vasant Kunj and Jasola, 10,000 unoccupied flats are from the 2014 scheme, while 2,000 are other flats which have been lying vacant," a senior DDA official said.

Sources said most of the flats are one-bedroom LIG flats from the last housing scheme and no new flat is on offer this time.

"About 10,000 are LIG flats from 2014 DDA scheme. Unlike EWS (Economically Weaker Section) last time, in this scheme there would be no such category," the official said. "For LIG category the registration fee would be Rs 1 lakh while for MIG and HIG it would be Rs 2 lakh," he said. "Application forms would be available both online and offline," he said.

From application to refund, the DDA this time had planned to make the scheme an online affair to reduce the long queues of flat buyers at its headquarters. "A big number of citizens either still do not have access to technology or are not tech-savvy. So, we decided to keep both the options," he added. Scheme 2014 offered 25,040 flats across categories, with prices ranging between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore.

The online response was so massive that DDA's official website had crashed soon after the launch. The one-bedroom flats were offered in Dwarka, Rohini, Narela and Siraspurareas.