New makeover plan for prime MCD land in Delhi
The properties slated for redevelopment house employee accommodation built over five decades ago at Minto Road near Connaught Place, Model Town, Azadpur, Dhaka near Delhi University’s North Campus, Usmanpur, and Kamla Nagar.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to engage NBCC for redeveloping six ageing properties at prime locations across the capital—an effort to generate an estimated ₹15,000 crore and ease a financial crisis that has left the civic body unable even to repair its own crumbling staff quarters.
The properties slated for redevelopment house employee accommodation built over five decades ago at Minto Road near Connaught Place, Model Town, Azadpur, Dhaka near Delhi University’s North Campus, Usmanpur, and Kamla Nagar. Under the plan, these structures would be razed and replaced with multi-storey residential-cum-commercial complexes, with the flats and commercial space sold to generate revenue.
Discussions with state-run NBCC (India) Limited are at an advanced stage, a senior MCD official said, with the proposal expected before the standing committee soon. The decision to involve NBCC follows the civic body’s repeated failure to execute these projects on its own and the collapse of earlier talks with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation.
“The civic body has failed to take off these redevelopment projects and has finally decided to hand them over to NBCC, which is undertaking several such projects and has a proven track record,” the official said.
The financial stakes are substantial. The corporation estimates it could generate approximately ₹15,000 crore by constructing and selling around 5,000 flats across Model Town’s 97,184 square metre site and Azadpur’s 72,145 square metre plot, along with hotels, hospitals, clubs and banquet halls, according to projections made about eight years ago. Substantial additional revenue is anticipated from developing residential complexes at the three remaining sites in Dhaka, Usmanpur and Kamla Nagar.
Such an injection would prove transformative for a corporation that, despite an annual budget of ₹17,000 crore, is saddled with liabilities worth ₹16,226.51 crore—including employees’ seventh pay Commission arrears, gratuity, and outstanding payments to contractors. “The proceeds will not only help clear the corporation’s debts but also provide significant savings for development projects,” said a second official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The extent of the properties’ deterioration is perhaps most starkly visible at Minto Road, where 41 municipal flats ranging from Type-2 to Type-5 have stood since the 1940s. These single-storey structures now house just 19 families, with 22 flats lying vacant due to uninhabitable conditions—a vacancy rate exceeding 50%.
“The existing set of municipal flats are very old and in poor condition. As more than half are lying vacant and the remaining occupied flats require frequent maintenance, they have become uneconomical and unviable for MCD,” another official said.
The site’s redevelopment potential, however, is considerable. The erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation had envisioned a ₹2,000-crore revenue generation project there. Under the revised plans now being negotiated with NBCC, the existing structures would make way for five nine-storey towers at an estimated construction cost of ₹121.4 crore—a fraction of the anticipated returns.
Similar dynamics play out across the other five locations, where most staff quarters were constructed five decades ago and have since deteriorated significantly. “The corporation has been unable to repair these dilapidated structures due to poor financial conditions. Consequently, it has decided to convert the land into civic housing through collaboration with NBCC, with flats to be sold thereafter,” the first official said.
The success of these projects could prove decisive in determining whether the civic body can emerge from its financial morass. Whether the eight-year-old revenue projections remain realistic in today’s real estate market, however, remains an open question.
NBCC did not respond to queries from HT seeking comment on the proposed partnership.
