Delhi: Master Plan
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Master Plan: 2021
Poor implementation
From: Ambika Pandit & Mayank Manohar, MASTER PLAN UNRAVELS AS VIOLATIONS BECOME NORM, November 2, 2017: The Times of India
From: Ambika Pandit & Mayank Manohar, MASTER PLAN UNRAVELS AS VIOLATIONS BECOME NORM, November 2, 2017: The Times of India
DDA is preparing the next master plan for city but the process can turn futile if it refuses to learn from the way the previous one was implemented
A bungalow with a manicured garden and a wide driveway in C Block of G r e a t e r Kailash-I was built in the 1960s and promised its owner a quality life in a dream colony . Today, Renu Khosla, the daughter of the man who constructed the house, talks of a shattered dream as she surveys the area near her home -a health facility, offices and others that all show signs of being commercial sites. “Yes, it is indeed a beautiful house,“ Khosla agrees, “but with all this commercial activity, you cannot even open the door and sit in privacy in the lawn.“.
Khosla remembers the sealing drive undertaken by the municipal corporation in 2006 to prevent use of residential properties in upscale colonies for commercial activities. She points at a building nearby where the locked gate still bears the official seal. “What is the point of sealing houses if you cannot prevent commercialisation of residential spaces?“ asks Khosla. Skirting her house is Hansraj Gupta Marg, on which are located plush showrooms and boutiques, spas and healthcare centres, branded ice cream parlours and confectionary shops. The spirit of Master Plan for Delhi 2021 is clearly dead on this stretch, as elsewhere in the expanse of the capital.
In September 2006, the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi cracked down on commercial establishments operating in residential areas, particularly in colonies classified as A and B that constituted the high-land tax category. Greater KailashI, a B colony, was identified as one such hotspot. Here, even the Supreme Court had directed the cessation of commercial activities.
The sealing led to panic among traders across the capital until Delhi Development Authority seemed to come to their rescue with MPD21 that laid the ground for mixed-use (commercial and residential) areas. Under the plan, activities such as nursing homes and pre-primary schools would be allowed in residential colonies provided certain road width norms were met. Residents of Greater Kailash I were successful in preventing Hansraj Gupta Marg from being included in the list of commerc i a l streets, but a decade later, as DDA begins work on the succeeding MPD41 to oversee Delhi's development till 2041, the stretch remains a picture of unchecked commercialisation, chaotic parking and paralysed traffic set-up.
This road is emblematic of how MPD21 failed to deliver. The cutoff dates and road-width norms for allowing commercial centres in residential areas were never met. The rules said that only establishments related to health, like weight loss spas, Ayurvedic treatment centres and salons offering aesthetic medical services that existed on on February 7, 2007 could continue operations. New banks, fitness centres or NGO offices would no longer be permitted to operate from A and B colonies.
SDMC officials, however, said that there is no controversy over the number of commercial establishments permitted in A or B colonies.“The Master Plan does not place such a limit, but we have ensured that no new centres have come up in the past few years. There is a need for a limiting provision in the MPD,“ a senior SDMC official said. “In a colony other than A or B, a house can have up to four shops occupying not more than 20 sq metres.“
MPD21 also notified 2,183 streets for commercial and mixed use and detailed what sort of activities could be carried out on such stretched and the norms applicable.Monitoring of compliance and conversion charges held the key to legalisation, but the corporation found itself in knots about these. After the utter failure in ensuring compliance, the civic body chose first to blame the traders for not being forthcoming on the nature of their commercial activities and then to workforce problems for the poor implementation. As far back as 1993, the original owners of buildings on Hansraj Gupta Marg had written to PV Jayakrishnan, the MCD commissioner then, listing 15 residential complexes being used for commercial purposes. “It seems that money has become the law of the land,“ the members of GKI residents' association had testily told the civic head. Tor day, Surendra Kumar, a retired government officer, stands perplexed at his 60-yearold house across the M old house across the M Block market and looks at the bus stop where no bus stops and the only shops around are those selling wares that are nothing like the permitted “daily needs“.
‘Special’ areas
For a decade it has borne the indignity of being tagged a `Special Area' and yet remained among the neglected lots in the city . In fact, increased commercialisation has only worsened the load on civic infrastruc ture in this expanse that takes in the Walled City , its ex tension and Karol Bagh, and be sides the grand categorisation, there is abso lutely nothing special about these places.. MPD-21, notified on February 7, 2007, termed this de marcated portion a `Special Area' and said it would have regulations differed from other city areas and that it would “be brought within the planning purview“. The erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (the area now falls in the jurisdiction of the north corporation) was supposed to prepare the Special Area Plan.
The BJP-led body did indeed prepare a plan, but it has ever been stuck in technicalities. Civic officials said the plan was sent to DDA for approval in 2011, but experts had objections, leading to conservation body Intach being asked to prepare guidelines for `Shahjahanabad'. The special by-laws were submitted to the north corporation in 2015.
“Under the Delhi Municipal Act, corporations don't have the power to approve or notify the Local Area Plan. It is DDA that is mandated to notify such plans,“ said Shamsher Singh, former chief town planner with MCD. Officials of land-owing agency, however, argue that the responsibility is of the corporation's.
With the plan stuck, the people are at the receiving end. “The infrastructure is very old and appears incapable of taking the increased load. There are problems like encroachment and il legal construction, but the corporation is doing little,“ said Praveen, a Chandni Chowk trader. The ambitious plan to redevelop the Shajahanabad locality, conceived in 2006, is nowhere near completion, with the wholesale markets yet to be shifted to the integrated freight complexes as planned.
Architect Abhimanyu Dalal, who prepared the original redevelopment plan, opted out last year after blaming the multiplicity of authorities and lack of will for the plan not taking off.Even the work of shifting utilities and cables to the underground ducts created between Fatehpuri Masjid and Red Fort has not been achieved.
With the non-implementation of the plan, development is at a standstill. Sanjay Bhargava, secretary of Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal, said, “Government agencies are not serious about redeveloping the area, not even removing the illegal hawkers or the encrochaments.“
`Conversion charges'
MPD21 allowed traders carrying out commercial activities in certain residential areas to continue so long as they paid a `conversion charge'. The three municipal corporations have collected more than Rs 1,700 crore in the past decade under this head. The corpus so collected was earmarked for infrastructure development, espe cially for erecting parking facilities and for developing markets.
Today, Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary , Confederation of All India Traders, sums up the perplexity of paying traders when he asks, “Where are the parking lots? What infrastructure development have they carried out in the last 11 years? Where have they spent the money?“ Traders were supposed to pay the conversion charges when the use of the property changed from residential to commercial under the mixed-use policy of MPD21.“The money collected was to be kept in a separate account and used exclusively for infrastructure development in markets and to meet parking requirements,“ added Khandelwal. “We will take the corporations to court if they don't use the money for purpose it was meant for.“
Puneet Goyal, commissioner of the south corporation, retorted, “We are indeed using the said money for the construction of parking lots and redevelopment of markets. There seems to be some miscommunication. SDMC will take up 30 parking projects in the next 18 months. As for market redevelopment, we have cleared the proposals for redeveloping 80 markets and more markets will be considered.“
While the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi planned close to 40 multilevel and stilt parking projects, very few of these came to fruition. Most of them were proposed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, and the scheme's scrapping later dried up the source of funds.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation started eight multilevel parking projects, of which four are complete while the rest are running three years behind sched ule. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation also proposed to construct several underground and multilevel parking facilities, but none of them has moved from the drawing board. Several were aborted after JNNURM was scrapped.Of the 19 parking lots it planned, just four are functioning today. Of the four, the two in Chandni Chowk see regular use, but the ones in Kamla Market and Model Town are vacant most of the time.
Changes in 2018
A one-time conversion charge
Mayank Manohar, Conversion charge now one-time affair, July 1, 2018: The Times of India
From: Mayank Manohar, Conversion charge now one-time affair, July 1, 2018: The Times of India
Traders Rejoice As DDA Notifies Changes In Master Plan; New Charges For Basements
With Delhi Development Authority notifying changes in Master Plan Delhi 2021, there is a big relief for traders. The new amendments make conversion charges a one-time payment instead of once every year. Traders who have paid the annual charges for a period of 10 years are now exempt from the burden. They are, however, not too happy at having to pay newly added charges for the use of basements.
The sealing drive had been, in the main, prompted by violation of rules on payment of charges for using residential buildings for commercial use and these amendments, civic officials hoped, would prevent evasion of payment of such charges.
Earlier, for A & B category colonies, a shop paid an annual Rs 767 per square metre as conversion charge, but will now be required to shell out a one-time fee of Rs 6,136 per square meter. “Traders will get a rebate for two years through the one-time payment of conversion charges. Traders who have paid conversion charges for a period of 10 years do not have to pay anything more,” explained an official of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation. For local shopping complexes, the one-time charge has been finalised at Rs 22,274 per square metre in A & B category colonies, Rs 14, 839 in C & D categories and Rs 5,576 in E, F, G and H category colonies.
“In case there is a delay in payment of the charges within a period of six months, an interest of 8% per annum will be levied on the owners,” the amendment states.
Basement charges are also a part of the new rules. The sealing drive had especially targeted shops operating from basements. Under the new rules, one-time charges for using basements in A & B category colonies has been fixed at Rs 4,200 per square metre, if paid within six months of notification, or Rs 9,080 after that. For C & D categories, the rates are Rs 1,680 within six months and Rs 3,632 thereafter.
Senior officials claimed that the charges for additional FAR and for use conversion would boost the municipal corporations’ revenue. “There are 106 local shopping complexes in Delhi and the money that will come in will boost revenues by a big margin,” said an SDMC official.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is relived at the changes. “Besides those who have paid conversion charges for 10 years not being required to pay any more, the notification also says that in case of conversion charges not paid in full for 10 years, the balance can be settled in the next three months,” observed Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary, CAIT.
Sanjiv Mehra, president of Khan Market Traders Association, noted that use of basement required an NOC from fire department. “We have objected to this provision because the fire department does not issue clearances for basements. This needs to be rectified by the authorities,” said Mehra.
Traders hope that the corpus created by the conversion charges is utilised for developing markets. “How are civic bodies going to guarantee that the funds collected will be employed to developing parking spaces?” asked Sanjay Bhargava, president, Chandni Chowk Vyapar Mandal.
