Tasked by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to take a relook at New Delhi’s Lutyens Bungalow Zone (LBZ), home to the men and women who run India, the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) have in separate recommendations called for large-scale reduction in LBZ acreage by excluding the Ridge, parts of areas north and south of Rajpath and the Diplomatic Enclave.The DUAC’s final recommendations on the LBZ were forwarded to the NDMC for comments in the context of the new Delhi Master Plan in February, 2007. The document containing the recommendations of both NDMC and DUAC was handed over to the Urban Development Ministry and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on November 21, 2007 for further deliberations. The final word will come from the PMO as the LBZ was first notified by the government in 1988 and last modified in 2003 by adding the “one plot depth” to help make it more symmetrical.Urban Development Ministry sources confirmed that while the DUAC recommended that the LBZ be reduced from the existing nearly 3,000 hectares to 930 hectares, the NDMC, which forms 80 per cent of the LBZ, wants it shrunk to around 1,500 hectares. This means that in the remaining area, severe restrictions pertaining to ground coverage, floor area ratio and height will be removed. The move, if approved, will permit the public to construct smaller houses with more floor area ratio, governed by the Master Plan.In its recommendations, the DUAC wants the LBZ to be renamed the Lutyens Conservation Zone and Bungalow Precincts. The Bungalow Precincts (BP) will constitute a small part north of Rajpath and a large chunk of area south of Rajpath. The DUAC wants the entire Ridge (800 hectares), parts of Chanakyapuri (150 hectares) and large areas north of Rajpath (from the present 350 hectares to 45 hectares) and south of Rajpath (from the present 1400 hectares to 400 hectares) removed from the LBZ. The NDMC, on its part, has no problems in excluding the Ridge from the LBZ as it is governed by the far more stringent Forest Act. It is also in agreement with the proposal to exclude the Shanti Path vista in the Diplomatic Enclave as building norms are very rigid and there is controlled development in the area. But the NDMC wants minimum reduction (300-325 hectares) in the areas north and south of Rajpath. It has advocated that Delhi Golf Course, Jor Bagh, Golf Links and parts of Sunder Nagar colony be kept out of LBZ since these colonies were planned under plotted development and not bungalows of the Land & Development Office.Given the phenomenal property prices in the LBZ area, the Urban Development Ministry and the DDA are thinking hard on the final recommendations before arriving at a decision. While there is a strong view within the NDMC that reduction in the LBZ area will change the character of central Delhi which is thickly wooded, the contrary view is that there is no scope for huge bungalow plots in a megapolis such as Delhi.
