The file (number 11(105)/PA/CF/09) has gone missing from the government’s office. It is learnt that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s office is in hot pursuit with her special secretary Keshav Chandra sending out a circular on Tuesday to all heads of departments to hunt for the file in their offices. The circular says: “The said file might have been inadvertently linked with other files.”

A showcase project of DDA, Tehkhand aims to replace slums with decent housing and commercially developing the area through a public-private partnership. The project is already behind time.

Sources said the file was being maintained from the time the project was conceived. Among others, it had the joint inspection report of the project site by DDA and Delhi government officials. It also contained the project’s master plan and land-ownership documents.

A senior government official said, “It is rare that such an important file should suddenly become untraceable.”

The project was launched in 2006 on a 14.3-hectare plot at Tehkhand near the Kalkaji Extension. Several private players answered bids for it, though a consortium of India Bulls and DLF was finally given the job.

The plan states 750 premium residential flats would be built here and sold to private real estate developers. These flats were on five hectares. In the rest, the private players were to erect a residential colony of nearly 3,500 flats for the economically weaker section. Nearly 1,500 slums were removed from the area in 2006 to make way for the project.

However, this ambitious plan has been shadowed by trouble from the beginning. First, the MCD raised questions over land ownership: it claimed the land had been given to it in 1997 for slum re-development. But the DDA said it had withdrawn the land from MCD in 1998.

Recently, after a face-off between India Bulls and DLF, the latter pulled out, stalling the project for a while. Till now, promoters have not submitted the building plans to DDA or MCD. They have not applied for environment clearance either.