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Updated: Sep 14, 2019 04:46 IST

Union housing and urban development minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that the Rithala-Bawana- Narela corridor, one of the six corridors in Delhi Metro’s Phase IV project, is likely to get approval soon.

Speaking at an event organised by Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Puri acknowledged that connectivity was a concern in peripheral areas of the city, where the land pooling policy is to be implemented.

“The Narela (corridor) should get approval in the next few months,” said Puri. The Metro corridor will help Narela, which has earned the sobriquet of a ghost town as a majority of flats constructed by the DDA there are lying unoccupied. One of the major concerns of people who purchased DDA flats in Narela’s G-2 and G-8 sectors was lack of public transport, Puri said.

In March this year, the Centre had approved three corridors — Maujpur to Majlis Park (Mukundpur), Janakpuri West to RK Ashram and Aerocity to Tughlaqabad — of Metro Phase IV as priority corridors.

The other three corridors which were put on hold were: Rithala to Narela, Inderlok to Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block.

But with close to 40,000 housing projects by the DDA in various stages of construction and maximum land being pooled in Bawana (Zone N), a senior government official said that the ministry is considering approving the Rithala to Narela corridor.

The corridor is 20.73km long and passes through Rohini Sector 24, Rohini Sector 26, Rohini Sector 3, Rohini Sector 32, Rohini Sector 36, Rohini Sector 37, Barwala, Puth Khurd, Bawana Industrial Area – I, Bawana Industrial Area – II, Bawana, Bawana JJ Colony, Narela.

The DDA, which has invested close to Rs 3,000 crore in Narela, has not been getting the desired response to its housing projects. In DDA’s housing schemes of 2014 and 2017, a majority of flats were returned by the allottees.

Earlier this year, the DDA had put on sale close to 18,000 flats in Narela and Vasant Kunj. Of the 18,000, around 16,900 flats were in Narela.

According to a senior DDA official, “A majority of the flats located in Narela have been returned. Lack of public transport and connectivity with the rest of the city is one of the main reasons for the poor response.”

After receiving a low-key response to its housing projects in Narela, the Delhi Development Authority is in the process of hiring a consultant to help redevelop and repackage the urban extension.