The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), they said, had failed to solve the Capital's housing problem, despite possessing a mammoth infrastructure. It manages to build only about 4,000 flats every year, just a fraction of the actual demand created by a constant migration into the Capital. Over 50,000 people are currently waiting for their turn to the allotment of a DDA flats.

The move could also provide the Delhi-ites with an alternative to the assembly line, match-box flats and shops that the public development agency has been inflicting upon the consumers all these years. Instead, the private sector, armed with latest building technology and designing facilities, could significantly improve quality.

``And if low cost technologies are used, all that may not even cost the earth,'' former HUDCO chairman S.K. Sharma says.

According to one of the DDA's own architect's, the techniques being used by the agency have become totally obsolete, unable as the agency has been to keep pace with the exciting new developments in the field of construction industry. As a result, the variety in terms of designs and construction techniques is missing. That should end with the participation of the private sector.

According to the Rajdhani Builders' Association, the repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act and the participation of the private sector in the building activities in Delhi had been their long-standing demand. Big players like Ansals, DLF and Unitech had, in fact, been at the forefront of a campaign against the DDA monopoly against the building activity in Delhi.

The experience in neighbouring Gurgaon and Ghaziabad have shown that the private sector could play a meaningful role in solving the housing problem.

Though there are no large tracts of land available in the Capital, unlike the neighbouring, the builders feel that the tracts currently locked up under the Urban Land Ceiling Act could, indeed, make a big difference.

However, the organisations like the Apex Association of DDA Colonies and the Delhi Tenants' Forum have expressed concern that the poor may still remain neglected as the private builders would like to take up only profit making projects, which cannot be possible with the housing for the economically weaker sections.

The tenants, most of whom are aspiring to own a house of their own, are worried that the private builders could also delay the projects and jack up the prices for profiteering.

To avoid that, Sharma suggests that a part of the project should be reserved for the EWS category and it should be made mandatory for the builders to open a special account termed ascrow before getting sanction for any plan.

The sanction number should be necessary for this account and all money collected from the prospective buyers should be deposited in this bank account and released to the builder according to the pace of the development.

Logically, he says, even the task of urban planning should also be taken back from the DDA since the 74th constitutional amendment (article 243 ZE) which set up the Metropolitan Planning Committee vested the planning with the local government.

``The agency that competes with the private sector for the land development and building activities can not be entrusted with approving others' plans as well. As per the amendment, the local government is supposed to draft all the developmental plans in consultation with the public and submit it to the committee. This committee will consolidate them and them seek the government clearance,'' he points out.

The DDA, as the Union Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani said, can still continue to acquire land and take up the developmental projects, just as its counterparts in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

``The scheme has been launched with a noble intention. One hopes that it does not fall prey to the whims of bureaucracy,'' H.K. Yadav, former executive director of HUDCO, comments.

Private sector entry is likely to improve city housing 'from page 1profiteering.To avoid that, Sharma suggests that a part of the project should be reserved for the EWS category and it should be made mandatory for the builders to open a special account termed ascrow before getting sanction for any plan

.The sanction number should be necessary for this account and all money collected from the prospective buyers should be deposited in this bank account and released to the builder according to the pace of the development.

Logically, he says, even the task of urban planning should also be taken back from the DDA since the 74th constitutional amendment (article 243 ZE) which set up the Metropolitan Planning Committee vested the planning with the local government.

``The agency that competes with the private sector for the land development and building activities can not be entrusted with approving others' plans as well. As per the amendment, the local government is supposed to draft all the developmental plans in consultation with the public and submit it to the committee. This committee will consolidate them and them seek the government clearance,'' he points out.

The DDA, as the Union Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani said, can still continue to acquire land and take up the developmental projects, just as its counterparts in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

``The scheme has been launched with a noble intention. One hopes that it does not fall prey to the whims of bureaucracy,'' H.K. Yadav, former executive director of HUDCO, comments.