The situation for housing infrastructure for the urban poor in Bhubaneswar and Puri is set to change for the better as the government mulls affordable housing projects for these people with a Central grant of Rs 100 crore.
Of the Centre’s total grant of Rs 100 crore, Rs 50 crore is for Bhubaneswar while the balance Rs 50 crore would be spent for housing projects for the economically weaker sections in Puri.
“The Centre has indicated that a grant of Rs 100 crore would be given to Orissa for building affordable homes for the urban poor in Bhubaneswar and Puri. We expect to receive the Central grant within a month”, said AK Panda, secretary, department of housing and urban development of the Orissa government.
The Rs 100-crore grant from the Centre is under the scheme called Affordable Housing for All, which comes under the wider ambit of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNUURM).
The modalities for implementation of the projects for the urban poor are yet to be decided as things were still at a conceptual stage.
“We will convene a meeting of the real estate developers in Orissa soon to decide the mode of implementation of the housing projects”, Panda told reporters on the sidelines of a session on Comprehensive Development Plan of Bhubaneswar, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
He said, the state urban development department would soon come out with a policy paper on developing housing projects for the urban poor on the public private partnership (PPP) mode.
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“The revision of building by laws by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has attracted the attention of the real estate players both within and outside the state. Real estate developers should tap the huge potential offered by the affordable hosing segment”, said Panda who is also the chairman of BDA.
Talking on the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) of Bhubaneswar, he said, BDA had received around 5,000 complaints pertaining to the draft CDP and the authority is in the process of disposing off the complaints and giving a final shape to the plan.
The state government has also initiated steps for preparing CDPs of industrial hubs in the state like Kalinganagar, Angul, Jharsuguda and Rourkela, he added. Speaking on the occasion, Badrinarayan Patra, the state minister for housing and urban development said, “More and more homes need to be built for the urban poor. The state government is committed to offer support to the real estate developers who earmark 15 per cent of the total built-up area of a housing project for the low income groups.”