New Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to fix uniformity in construction standards of residential flats in the national capital. According to DDA’s principal commissioner (land and housing) J.P. Agarwal, carpet area of all new construction from now on will be as per the specification prescribed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
As per the PMAY norms, each EWS (economically weaker section) category flat will be spread up to 30 square metres (sqm), whi-le low income group (LIG) flats will have 40-60 sqm carpet area. A middle inc-ome group (MIG) and hig-her income group (HIG) flat will have carpet area of up to 110 sqm and above 130 sqm respectively.
The decision to follow the PMAY norms was taken after the DDA faced criticism for offering smaller sized LIG flats in the 2014 housing scheme. Over 10,000 allottees had surrendered their units because they found them too small. The allottees alleged that the DDA sold Janta or EWS flats as LIG flats after making slight changes in design and construction.
Mr Agarwal admitted that one of the two rooms of LIG flats offered in the last scheme was small.
“Even after three years, the authority is still receiving applications requesting cancellation of allotment. Every day, I sign 40-50 files seeking approval for cancellation of allotment. To avoid similar situation in future, the DDA will stick to the PMAY norms from now on,” added Mr Agarwal.
