Delhi Development Authority to triple floor area ratio, city to go vertical

Date : Jan 23, 2013

NEW DELHI: Delhi's planning body may allow houses that are built for the poor and middle-class to go vertical by tripling the floor area ratio (FAR) from 200 to 600, as the city copes with growing housing shortage, government officials said.

The officials, who asked not to be named, said the union urban development ministry, which administers Delhi's civic and urban planning bodies, has asked theDelhi Development Authority (DDA) to increase the FAR, and include the revised figure in the Delhi Master Plan 2021, an updated version of which is likely to be released by March this year.

FAR is the ratio of the total floor area of a building to the plot area. The concept underlying FAR is utilisation of land in the most optimal manner. If the current limit is relaxed, DDA can potentially build high-rise apartments which could reach up to twenty floors in certain locations, as compared to four-to-six floors now.

If FAR is raised, it will be the first step towards Delhi having a taller skyline, similar to its global counterparts, and akin to Mumbai where buildings are getting taller. It could also lead to an increase in the number of new apartments and a drop in home prices.

The increase in FAR will first be effected in case of housing for the economically weaker sections and low income groups, which face a huge shortage of homes in Delhi. It will then be extended to housing for more affluent sections, built by both the public sector as well as private builders. The city currently has a shortage of 0.49 million homes, which could reach 2.4 million by the end of this decade. Of this, close to 90% of the shortage is in the economically weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) categories.

The ministry of urban development is currently undertaking a review of the Delhi Master Plan 2021, a process which is expected to be completed by May 2013, said a DDA official, asking not to be named.

The review will comprehensively examine the master plan for Delhi and implement all feasible suggestions to make it more robust, he said. One of the key issues being deliberated upon in the review is the issue of increase the FAR.

"We want to increase housing stock in the city," said the DDA official. In 2013, DDA has planned to begin construction of 100,000 houses in the EWS and LIG categories.

The minister for urban development Kamal Nath has been a vocal proponent of vertical growth of the city and with the process of review nearing its end, this could become a reality soon.

Nath's drive for vertical growth, though, has come under criticism from town planners, architects, and bodies like the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC), on the ground that the strain on infrastructure such as roads, water, power and sewerage will go up manifold.

The master plan, once the review is complete, is expected to endorse higher FAR for larger plots in the city as well as for group housing projects of builders.

With Delhi expanding over the years and the population reaching 17 million, property prices have shot up because of which middle class home buyers have been forced to look for homes in new urban areas around the city such as Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and beyond. The average property prices in Delhi are at least two to three times that in Gurgaon and Noida.

By going vertical, prices of apartments can come down. "With high cost of land, if you have low FAR, the price of a flat will be very high," he had told ET.

Property prices in many parts of Delhi, especially in the south and central parts of the city, today are comparable to those in cities like New York and London.

Source:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/policy/delhi-development-authority-to-triple-floor-area-ratio-city-to-go-vertical/articleshow/18142190.cms