DDA to webcast 'Housing scheme 2014' draw live on YouTube

New Delhi, Oct 26: The eagerly-awaited draw of lots for the flagship 'DDA Housing Scheme 2014' next month can be seen online as the housing authority has decided to webcast the entire event, a top official said today.

The webcast would be available for "unlimited" number of online users through a YouTube channel. "A meeting was held with various vendors a few days ago, and the DDA vice-chairman has approved the proposal to webcast the draw through live streaming," Director (Systems) of DDA, V S Tomar said.

The tentative date for draw of the lots for the new scheme, which offers over 25,000 flats across various categories, ranging from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore, is November 5. The scheme closed on October 15 and has received over 8.5 lakh applications.

"Delhi-based vendors with prior experience in webcasting approached us and proposed to stream the event online through YouTube. We decided on YouTube and not DDA's official website to preclude any chance of crashing of the site, given the online traffic it would attract on the D-Day," Tomar said.

He said the proposal was approved as the proposed budget for the project by the vendors, turned out to be "cost-effective".

"The proposal also will have no cap on online users as the video would be streamed online through a YouTube channel," he said.

Gearing up for the draw, the DDA has planned to dedicate a server to deal with the anticipated "rush of online traffic" on its official website.

"As per the vendor for the draw, C-DAC again has been assigned the role, but the venue of the draw has not been finalised yet. It will either be Noida, where the C-DAC office and servers are located, or at the DDA headquarters, Vikas Sadan itself," he said.

C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) had also conducted the draw for DDA's last housing scheme in 2010.

"Both places have their pros and cons, and we want to conduct the procedure in the best possible way. If C-DAC agrees to shift its server at the Vikas Sadan, then we can do it either in our Auction Hall or the Conference Hall, both having a capacity of between 200-250," he added.

Tomar said it was decided not to provide a link for the webcast on the DDA website as it would become prone to crash.

As part of our preparations ahead of the draw, DDA has planned to set up a dedicated served around the last week of this month, and it will have load-balancing facilities, to avert chances of crashing the website due to heavy traffic.

Meanwhile, the procedure for the draw has also been uploaded on the website and applicants can check the status of their application online.

PTI