Delhi Development Authority (DDA) announced exemption on shop conversation charges.

In an important decision which would support a large number of shops in local shopping centres (LSC) in areas such as Greater Kailash, Defense Colony, South Extension, etc, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), at its meeting on Thursday, granted an exemption from conversion charges to shops that initially auctioned as purely commercial property.

“DDA wanted an amendment earlier, which imposed conversion fees for shops that use upper floors for commercial use. When the plan was put into the public domain, several people objected to it, claiming that the plots on which these shops were constructed were already commercial and that the upper floors were only temporarily used for residential purposes,” a senior DDA official said.

“There are, however, a different type of shops, such as the ones in Sarojini Nagar and the Khan Market, where residential upper floors had been first permitted. Such shops will need to pay charges for conversion,” he said.

“The LSC’s Defense Colony and South Extension shops were sold at premium rates as commercial plots and the minimal residential development was allowed. Those who paid high commercial rates should not be paying the conversion fee,” said the president of Defense Colony market association Rajinder Malik.

The GK-I M-Block market trading association leader Rajender Sharda stated that those who paid conversion fees must be refunded or the amount should be adjusted in a floor area ratio.

The exemption from certain statutory clearances for household enterprises is another important decision taken during the meeting chaired by Delhi LG Anil Baijal.

Household industrial units with a maximum number of nine employees and 11 KW of power, in residential areas, with new industries of a similar type would not need to have mandatory statutory clearances, with no pollution industrial units being allowed as a household sector, from the Departments of Labor and Industries, and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

Institutional category plots will now be auctioned on freehold basis instead of as rented land, for schools, hospitals and socio-cultural organisations. “We expect more builders now with freehold plots,” said the official.

It can now be transformed into a large plot of up to 200 square meters from a smaller residential plot.