New DDA scheme in June with 21,000 flats on offer

NEW DELHI: This June, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is going to launch its housing scheme 2018 with nearly 21,000 flats on offer.
DDA promises that its latest housing scheme is going to be better and bigger than its previous two schemes, with more spacious flats on offer. Also, unlike its previous schemes, DDA won’t include flats that were surrendered in earlier schemes.

In its 2017 housing scheme, DDA had put 12,617 flats on offer, for which it had received 46,000 applications. However, after the flats were allotted, nearly 6,500 allottees surrendered the flats, primarily citing their small size and also their location.
The flats on offer in 2017 also included a large number of one-bedroom flats that had been surrendered in its previous schemes.
“Most allottees complained that the size of the onebedroom flats was too small and uninhabitable. This is the reason we insist that applicants should go and physically check the flats before applying for the scheme but most don’t do so and only visit the flats once the allotment is done,” said a senior DDA official.
“We are planning to not include flats that have been surrendered in previous schemes. The 2018 scheme would have only newly constructed flats and these would be better than what we have offered earlier,” the official said.
No flat smaller than 430sq ft to be offered
The flats, construction of which has been completed in the last six months, are much bigger compared to those of our previous schemes. The one-bedroom flats we are going to offer in the 2018 housing scheme would have a minimum size of 430 square feet, which would make these much more spacious than the older flats which were about 323 square feet in size,” the official said.
The official said DDA will not put flats smaller than 430 square feet in the bracket of one-bedroom LIG (lower income group) flats in the 2018 housing scheme. “Smaller flats would be put in the EWS (economically weaker section) category so that applicants will be sure what type of flat they are applying for,” the official said.
The 2018 housing scheme would once again have mostly one-bedroom flats on offer, along with two-bedroom and three-bedroom flats. The flats are located in areas such as Vasant Kunj, Dwarka, Rohini, Narela, Siraspur etc.
Instead of including its surrendered flats once again in a new scheme and have them returned, DDA has decided not to include these 6,500-odd flats in the 2018 scheme and instead may tweak their design to make them more attractive to buyers. “We are exploring the possibility of merging two one-bedroom flats into one two-bedroom flat,” he said.