DDA to re-auction close to 150 shops in November

THESE SHOPS ARE MAINLY LOCATED IN AREAS SUCH AS SHALIMAR BAGH, NARELA, JAHANGIRPURI, ROHINI AND PASCHIM VIHAR. A MAJORITY OF THESE ARE IN COMMUNITY AND LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRES DEVELOPED BY THE DDA

NEW DELHI: At a time when commercial activity is rampant in residential areas in Delhi, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is finding it difficult to sell its shops in planned commercial centres. The land-owning agency has decided to re-auction close to 150 shops – for the second time in less than a year – in commercial centres in various parts of the city for sale in November.

Earlier this year, the landowning agency had put up 148 commercial units (shops) for auction under the general category. But there was poor response from public as only 25 were sold. The DDA has now prepared a list of 145 commercial units which will be auctioned next month.

Tarun Kapoor, DDA vicechairman, said, “We have 145 shops in various parts of the city which will be put up for auction next month. The authority has many inventories of commercial units which now need to be unlocked. We are in the process of identifying more shops which can be auctioned.”

These shops are mainly located in areas such as Shalimar Bagh, Narela, Jahangirpuri, Rohini and Paschim Vihar. A majority of these commercial units are in community shopping centres and local shopping centres developed by the DDA.

DDA officials said poor response to the auction earlier this year was due to high reserved price and lack of main- tenance of markets where these shops are located. “There were two types of problems – one, some of these shops were very old and were not under proper maintenance. Second, the reserved price of the shops was higher than the current market rate. We are trying to fix the two problems,” said Kapoor.

According to the senior official, the DDA has identified as many as 1,109 commercial units in various parts of the city which were unsold for several years. The official said in some cases, people have not taken possession. “There are cases where people have paid just the first installment. We are compiling the list of shops which are unsold,” Kapoor said.

DDA is trying to rework the reserved price of some shops which have not been sold despite being put up for sale several times. “We don’t have to rework the reserved price of all the shops. But in cases wherever it is required, we are looking for ways to reset the reserved price,” he said.