DDA increases FAR for housing, hospitals
On a move to meet the housing requirements of the national capital, the Delhi Development Authority has raised the floor area ratio (FAR) of hospitals and housing.
Under the review process of Master Plan Delhi-2021, the DDA gave its nod on Thursday to relax the FAR values in the city. The FAR value of hospitals will also be hiked from 200 to 375 depending on the width of the road that they are located on. The plots located on roads less than 24m wide, will be given an FAR of 250, the FAR allowed for plots located on roads which are 24 to 30m wide will be 300 and those located on roads that are greater than 30m width will be allowed a FAR of 375. Meanwhile, the reduction in the floor area from 100 sqm per bed to 80 sqm per bed will also help to fit in more number of beds in the available space.
The DDA is all set to offer service apartments on plots measuring 2000 square metres. The service apartments would be allowed in public, semi-public, commercial and residential land use. The minimum plot size required for building service apartments is fixed as 40 sq mt and they will be allowed on the roads which are at least 12m-wide. These proposals will be sent to the urban development ministry for final approval.
Apart from increasing FAR values for hotels, the authority has quoted a new definition for a hotel as “a premise having minimum 10 rooms for lodging and boarding of 15 persons on short- or long-term basis”. The hotels will be allowed to include facilities including service apartments, banquet halls, conference rooms, restaurants, health clubs, swimming pools, food courts, discotheque, commercial offices, the residential units (with or without transfer of ownership rights), retail and service shops restricted to 30 percent of the total floor area. The proposal, along with other development control norms for hotels that have been approved, will shortly be notified welcoming objections and suggestions.
DDA officials said that additional space in the form of podium parking will be provided and while calculating the FAR, the facilities such as staff changing room, staff dining facility, radiology labs in the basement etc will be excluded.
The civic authority has increased the floor area ratio (FAR) of buildings from 150 to 225 which will result in setting up of more apartments.
The DDA has also decided to increase the FAR of permanent sample plots (PSP) from existing 150 to 225 for educational facilities such as vocational training centre, research and development institutes, management institutes, teacher training centers, professional colleges and university campuses which will provide more space for hostel accommodation and classrooms.
This move is expected to increase the supply of residential units in the national capital Delhi that may also slightly decrease the prices of properties in Delhi. As there is no very less vacant land available for developing new residential projects, increased FAR is surely beneficial. Since there is no room for horizontal development, the city has to grow vertical to meet the housing demand of the rapid growing population.
