3 min readNew DelhiApr 7, 2026 12:30 PM IST
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Tuesday notified the new Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy for Delhi, which is expected to open up large swathes of land near Metro corridors to high density development. A key objective of the policy, according to officials, is to make smaller, more affordable housing units available in Delhi.
The new policy makes it mandatory for developers of highrises within 500-metre radius of Metro or regional transit corridors, who want to avail of the higher Floor Area Ratio (FAR), to construct affordable housing. At least 65% of the total permissible FAR will have to be used for residential units of less than 100 sq.m. of built-up area, including guesthouses or studio apartments, the policy says.
TOD is an urban planning paradigm that focuses on strategically developing urban spaces by clustering residential, business and leisure spaces within walking distance of the public transport hubs.
Under the new policy, developers are allowed a base FAR of 400. This means they can build on four times the plot area, and this can be increased to 500, or five times the plot area, by paying additional charges. But to be eligible for higher FAR, the policy mandates that at least 65% of the total built-up area must be reserved for smaller residential units. This is expected to incentivise developers to build smaller, affordable units in the Capital.
A minimum of 10% must be set aside for neighbourhood commercial use and social amenities, while the remaining 25% can be used for larger homes, office spaces, or similar uses. A draft of the policy was released last November in the public domain by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to invite feedback. While DDA has released different versions of TOD policies in 2015, 2019 and 2021, and identified 12 clusters or TOD nodes, different metro and Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) stations over a decade, the construction work is yet to start at any of these locations, except one.
At DDA’s East Delhi Hub in Karkardooma, the only node where work started, the initial phase is set to be completed in the middle of this year.
The TOD policy is a part of the Master Plan of Delhi-2021, and the new version was initially expected to be a part of the MPD-2041. However, as the Master Plan of Delhi-2041 awaits Centre’s nod, DDA has been amending several policies, such as TOD and land pooling, separately.
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A key concern raised by experts and RWAs about the policy has been the potential for haphazard development.
They had red-flagged the removal of provisions for local area planning (LAP) and ensuring infrastructure development in line with the population increase, which
were present in previous TOD policies.
