Delhi govt takes a leaf out of Centre's book to revamp its housing colonies
According to a senior official, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta discussed the matter in a recent meeting with Public Works Department (PWD) officials.
Under the GPRA project, existing government residential colonies in Delhi are being redeveloped under the PPP model, primarily to modernise the houses and optimise land use.
'The Delhi government plans to redevelop housing colonies under the PPP model and recover the cost of the project by using the land space for commercial purposes… like building offices and retail spaces, or by selling land parcels to private developers or constructing housing units and selling them…,' said the senior official.
'The matter was taken up in the department's last meeting with the CM… The department has been asked to explore the possibility and appoint a consultant who will study the number of government colonies that can be redeveloped, how much space is available to build multi-storey buildings, and if there is space for commercial activities as well… The consultant will submit a detailed project report,' the official added.
Officials said that while the plan is at a nascent stage, the tendering process will start so that a consultant can be appointed.
At present, houses are allotted to Delhi government officials at 57 localities, including Daryaganj, Rajpur Road, Alipur Road, Satya Sadan, Shamnath Marg, Mayur Vihar, Commonwealth Games Village, and Vasant Kunj, among others. The allotment is done through the sarkari-awas portal.
Officials said that most houses allotted to Delhi government employees — from senior bureaucrats to ministers and the CM — come under the PWD pool and are managed by the department. They added that the key aim is to redevelop old and dilapidated government houses and replace them with modern and sustainable infrastructure, creating self-sustaining urban space.
'Currently, most of these colonies are two- or three-floor towers or buildings… After conducting a feasibility study, a plan will be made for land utilisation so that multi-storey towers, having modern features like rainwater harvesting systems, among others, can be constructed. This will also help the government to meet its housing requirement and help save the cost of repair and maintenance… Further, the waiting period for government staff to get a house will come down,' said the senior official.
In 2016, the Centre had approved the redevelopment of seven GPRA colonies in South Delhi — Sarojini Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Sriniwaspuri, Mohamm-adpur and Thyagraj Nagar — to meet the housing requirement of central government employees.
'As these are big-ticket projects and cannot be constructed solely through public funds, the government has brought in the PPP model, where it gives contracts to private companies that will construct the houses and use the space available for official or commercial activities to generate revenue,' a senior PWD official said.
'Some land parcels were also sold for commercial purposes so the money could be used to construct the houses in other areas… For instance, while work at Thyagraj Nagar and Mohammadpur has been completed, no space is being used for commercial purposes. At the same time, as of now, the government is exclusively using Nauroji Nagar for commercial activities, where the World Trade Centre is coming up… This will ensure that while project cost is recovered, houses are also constructed,' the official added.
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