DDA reclaims more than 240 acres of govt land in Delhi

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has reclaimed around 241.51 acres of government land after enforcement drives conducted across the national capital since April 2025, officials said on Friday.

The information was revealed at a review meeting on unauthorised construction headed by Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Taranjit Singh, where he directed a “zero-tolerance” approach towards encroachment anywhere in the capital.

“The LG has directed that technology be aggressively leveraged for real-time monitoring of land parcels and buildings, so that any unauthorised occupation or construction can be detected and acted upon swiftly,” an official present in the meeting said.

The LG directed strict action against gross violations, including de-empanelment and blacklisting of errant architects, and instructed DDA officials to promptly report unsafe or dilapidated buildings to the MCD for action.

The official said, “Nearly 241.51 acres of government land have been reclaimed since April 2025. Apart from this, 235.96 acres of land were cleared from illegal constructions in the development areas.”

“Fourteen flying squads have been constituted under the land management department for the dedicated protection of DDA land, backed by daily field inspections carried out by field survey teams,” he said.

To strengthen ground-level detection of encroachment, the DDA is conducting a drone survey of the national capital, under a tripartite agreement with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Survey of India. “Of the 1,370 square kilometres identified for survey, over 1,122 square kilometres have already been covered, with the drone survey of the entire O-Zone already completed,” the official said.

The land-owning agency has also identified 3,700 vacant land parcels spanning nearly 21,773 acres that are being geo-tagged and monitored for encroachment status through periodic photographs, the official said.

On unauthorised construction, the LG was informed of a special enforcement drive launched by the DDA to identify deviations from approved building plans, with dedicated inspection teams conducting field surveys.