RailEnquiry

People prefer living in a house that promises good ventilation and abundant sunlight -- a luxury in Delhi, where houses exist cheek by jowl.The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), however, plans to bring about a change. The DDA, along with the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning & Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC), is planning transit-oriented development (TOD) in the capital.This means intense mixed land use development along Metro corridors. According to the draft TOD policy, all residential buildings in the two kilometre-wide TOD zone should have maximum possible access to sunlight and proper ventilation.“All residential buildings should be oriented to face the north-south direction so that all dwelling units in a building should get at least two hours of sunlight in at least one room even on the shortest winter day of December 21 (winter solstice),” said a senior DDA official, who did not wish to be named. Also, no building should block sunlight to neighbouring buildings.

The policy suggests energy efficient glasses to be used in buildings and shade from trees and building enclosures to be used to minimize ‘urban heat island effect’.

The TOD aims intense development around transit corridors for easy public transport accessibility for a maximum number of people, which will mean lesser dependence on private vehicles. The intense development, however, is also planned to be completely ‘green’ development.

For the Phase I of TOD, five Metro corridors, including the Karkardooma pilot project, have been chosen - Chhattarpur to Arjangarh, Peeragarhi to Tikri Kalan, Dwarka Mor to Dwarka Sector-21 and Nehru Place to Badarpur.

The green initiatives planned in the TOD zones include recycling and reuse of wastewater, better water management for both potable and non-potable water and rainwater harvesting.

Rainwater harvesting has been made mandatory for all buildings, irrespective of project size. Even rainwater from roads would be reused after primary treatment.