Modalities for the participation of the private sector in the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), the Centre’s new project that envisages a slum-free India by 2012, are expected to be firmed up by early next year.
The scheme, which is under the aegis of the Ministry for Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, aims to accord property rights to slum dwellers by providing basic amenities and social infrastructure facilities in slums and low income settlements by enabling the construction of houses by the slum-dwellers through access to subsidised credit.
The funding element is likely to be a partnership between the dwellers, urban local bodies (ULBs), state and central government as well as private realty developers.
“We have created the outline for the implementation of this project, which has been seen by the Planning Commission, and have forwarded this to the state governments and the ULBs for their inputs. A number of state governments, including that of West Bengal, are yet to submit their recommendations. But we expect this process to be complete in another months,” Union minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy said. He was speaking on the sidelines of an event organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
Roy said that there was substantial opportunity for private partnership in the project, although he was unable to provide the exact amount of funding that would be required for the implementation of RAY.
“Since we are looking for vertical development at the existing slums, if private firms can accommodate the dwellers in multi-storied buildings at a subsidized cost, we may allow for commercial development in the remaining portion of the land,” he said.
According to the 2001 Census of India and another survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, the percentage of slum population in India's towns and cities stands at about 23.5 per cent of the total urban population.
