NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House on Tuesday approved a proposal to declare 48 rural villages across Delhi as urban villages under Section 507(a) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, making way for their formal inclusion in Delhi’s urban areas.
The proposal, initially recommended by its standing committee on September 1, was placed before the House following a request from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). The DDA had approved the urbanisation proposal at its meeting on February 20 this year and asked the MCD to initiate the process for declaration and notification of the villages.
This come against the backdrop of the Master Plan for Delhi-2047, which envisages strategies including land pooling, development of green areas, regeneration of existing areas and transit-oriented development. According to the MCD proposal, several of the identified villages are already contiguous with urbanised areas or fall within zones identified for future development.
The civic body said bringing the remaining rural villages within the framework of planned urban development would facilitate municipal governance, infra provision, urban planning and enforcement of development controls.
The 48 villages have been realigned according to the newly constituted revenue districts and sub-divisions of Delhi, based on inputs provided by the Land and Building Department of the Delhi government. They are spread across Outer North, North, North-East, North-West, South, South-West and South-East districts. The villages fall under different planning zones, including P-II, O, N, P-I, M&H, E, J, L and K-II and G, as listed.
Under Section 507(a) of the DMC Act, the corporation, with the prior approval of the government, can declare through a notification in the official gazette that any portion of the rural areas will cease to be included in the rural areas and become part of the urban areas.