A meeting of the Delhi Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit approved the long-pending proposal to regularise the settlements which were given provisional regularisation certificates in 2008.

"The Cabinet has given in principle approval for regularisation of 205 unauthorised colonies," Urban Development Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely told reporters after the meeting.

Out of the 205 colonies, officials said 157 colonies came up partly on forest land while 48 settlements have encroached land belonging to Archaeological Survey of India.

The government decided to regularise the colonies after getting clearance from Forest department and ASI, they said.

The Government in September had regularised 895 unauthorised colonies which are home to around 35 lakh people.

The Cabinet has also decided to immediately start developmental works in all the colonies which have been regularised.

"We will come out with the list of the 205 colonies, which have been given approval for regularisation by the cabinet, within 15 days," said Lovely.

The government has already asked all the three municipal corporations to take the help of professional architects in making the layout plans for the colonies which were already regularised.

It had issued provisional regularisation certificates to over 1,639 unauthorised colonies ahead of assembly polls in 2008. The then Dikshit government, while distributing the certificates, had promised to regularise the colonies if Congress came to power for the third term.

After the Congress' defeat in municipal polls in April, Dikshit had asked all concerned departments to expedite the regularisation process.