City govt seeks funds from Centre for vertical growth

Need money to build high rises, accommodate more people: Lovely

Supporting Union urban development minister Kamal Nath’s push for vertical growth in the city, the Delhi government has said the centre will have to give adequate funds to it for enhancing existing infrastructure if such a policy is finalised.

Delhi urban development minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said basic services like drainage, water supply and power distribution network will have to be strengthened if vertical expansion in the city is allowed.

“We absolutely have no problem with vertical expansion of Delhi. But when approval is given to high rises, then we will have to strengthen existing infrastructure like sewage network, water distribution system and power transmission. The centre will have to provide the Delhi government funds for enhancing infrastructure,” Lovely said.

Vertical growth will also address the problem of shortage of housing in the city and insisted that sincere efforts must be made to ensure optimum use of land resource, he said.

Nath has been strongly pitching for allowing high rise buildings in Delhi to accommodate the growing population.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit was understood to have reservations about the proposal. She had said that availability of power and water should be factored in before allowing high rises in the city.

The urban development ministry is currently in the process of reviewing the Master Plan Delhi 2021 and is expected to finalise a number of amendments soon, like allowing high rises and increasing the existing floor area ratio (FAR).
FAR is the ratio of the total floor area of a building to the plot area.

“We must ensure optimum use of scarce land resources. I think vertical growth will address the problem of housing shortage also,” said Lovely.

Senior officials in the Delhi government said the urban development ministry as well as Delhi Development Authority have given enough indication of increasing the FAR.
The DDA in March had approved the long-awaited land pooling policy. It allowed developers or land-owners to pool in land for constructing residential blocks.

The government’s decisions on Saturday to extend Lal Dora to 360 more villages and easing restriction on use of agriculture land for construction are also aimed at encouraging private developers to construct residential units.