Delhi’s old colonies to be redeveloped
It seems that the only way to make space for real estate in Delhi, which is currently congested due to less availability of land, is vertical growth. Since the availability of developable land is too less, redeveloping the old areas is the best possible way to unlock more real estate in the city.
Many of the old areas in the city are likely to get through a major makeover as the authorities have planned to demolish the old government structures and erect new modern concrete structures in their place. And it has been planned that the proposed new buildings would be leased out as office spaces and residential units only to government and public sector units.
Redevelopment of East Kidwai Nagar
Following the first redevelopment project of Moti Bagh, now it is the turn of East Kidwai Nagar, located near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The National Building and Construction Corporation (NBCC) has now undertaken the project of redeveloping East Kidwai Nagar.
Funds for the project
East Kidwai Nagar redevelopment is estimated to involve a funds of around Rs 5,000 crore. The NBCC is planning to arrange funds for the project through pre-booking of office space by public sector units (PSU’s). The lease amount that the PSUs and the government departments would be paying for booking these spaces would also be used in the project funds.
The Moti Bagh redevelopment project was proposed in 2007 and was funded by the government through the sale of three acres of government land on which the Leela Palace hotel in Chanakyapuri now stands.
Proposed plan
According to the plan, the proposed residential-cum-commercial multi-storeyed complexes will be similar to small township projects which will include facilities such as clubs, health care centers, schools, market area, shopping complex, etc.
Most of the space is booked
Already, about 60 percent of the commercial and residential spaces in the 86-acre complex have been booked by PSUs and 40 percent have been booked by various offices of government departments. Companies and organisations such as EPFO, Sebi, NMDC, Punjab and Sind Bank, IDBI, NHPC, IndianOil, the Chhattisgarh government, Oriental Insurance and others have expressed interest in leasing these spaces.
NBCC is coming up with about 4,700 residential units in the high-rises replacing about 2,200 old houses. It is expected to complete by the end of 2017.
The project has witnessed very huge response from the public and government sectors. Around 43 applications had been received among which only 23 applicants have been chosen till now for both commercial as well as residential spaces. The applicants seeking only residential units were not considered, revealed sources.
Other colonies proposed for redevelopment
Delhi has around 30 such government colonies that occupy around 1,100 hectares of land in prime areas. The government has also been planning to redevelop other colonies including Netaji Nagar near Diplomatic Enclave, Kasturba Nagar and Tyagraj Nagar near South Extension.
Most of the residential units in these areas are two bedroom units. Therefore when redeveloped, they would provide a large area of land for real estate development. The redevelopment of these old areas would provide a better look to the city apart from providing more housing units for increasing population.
