North Delhi civic body trying to make five-storey homes possible

NEW DELHI: North Delhi Municipal Corporation has proposed to increase the height limit for residential plotted buildings by 2.5m under the new norms being formulated for Master Plan of Delhi 2041 so that five-storey structures can come up.

Mayor Jai Prakash has made this proposal to lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, who heads the advisory council drafting the new master plan. He has also written to Union ministry of housing and urban affairs in this regard.

Under the existing revised Master Plan of Delhi 2021, the maximum permissible height for residential plotted housing is 15 metres. Additional relaxations are provided for features like stilt parking and solar panels, which reduce the burden on public utilities.

A senior planning department official said the height increase approved by the empowered committee would depend on the capacity of common infrastructure utility services, sewage lines, etc to bear additional load from urban density.

“The population density is increasing rapidly and the availability of land is becoming a serious cause for concern. We have proposed to raise the permissible height for residential buildings from 15m to 17.5m so that growing families can maximise the utilisation of land available with them,” said the mayor.

Delhi is undergoing the fastest urban expansion in the world and the UN world urbanisation prospects state that the metropolis is set to become the world’s most populous urban agglomeration by 2028. MPD 2021 had projected that out of 1,483 sq km of Delhi’s geographical area, 920 sq km would be urbanised.

According to the 2011 census, Delhi’s population was around 1.6 crore. However, it has crossed 2 crore in the last decade. “The pace at which the population is increasing, agencies do not have land to create new housing projects. There is no other way but to allow relaxation in building height norms,” said Prakash.

A senior official said the proposal could only be made applicable in planned areas where there was scope for augmenting common services like sewage lines, parking space, water allocation, etc.

“The number of dwelling units in any area is calculated on the services available there. New dwelling units will create additional load on the already crumbling infrastructure. There is already a massive demand-supply gap in water supply. Parking space shortage even chokes planned colonies at night. The increase should be allowed only after a proper study of these areas and unauthorised regularised colonies should not be made a part of the proposal,” added the official.