The West Bengal has decided to pay out an additional Rs300 crore or so to yet-to-be-selected contractors for building nearly 1.52 lakh houses for the urban poor over and above the sanction of Rs1 lakh per house.
This was expected to bail out contractors who had complained of rising raw material costs.
The state government had set a target of building 2 lakh low cost houses for the urban poor over the next five years.
Central funds were sanctioned for the same under two schemes of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), namely the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP).
Around 1,15,241 low cost houses were to be built under BUSP and 38,184 houses under IHSDP.
Till date just over 3000 houses had been built.
"Raw material prices, especially that of cement and steel have literally gone through the roof in the last six months and contractors have refused to work under the current sanctioned costs", explained state urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya.
Prices were up by 20-40 per cent across categories, he added.
"As the Centre refused to bear the additional burden, the state decided to factor in the rising input costs in construction and shell out Rs20,000 more per house", the minister said.
Fresh tenders would be awarded with an estimated cost of Rs 1.2 lakh per house, said P K Pradhan, principal secretary of the department.
The Centre had sanctioned Rs2411.18 crore under the BUSP benefiting 75 urban local bodies (ULBs) and Rs649.46 crore under the IHSDP for work in another 68 ULBs.
The projects under the BUSP were to be funded equally by state and central governments, while IHSDP costs would be shared 80:20 with the Centre paying the higher share.
The minister announced that the government would bring in the Public Disclosure Law bill in the upcoming session of the Assembly. This bill would make it mandatory for municipal bodies to disclose information to the public if asked.
The state urban development department was also looking at extending the internal audit system from 41 municipal bodies under the Kolkata Metropolitan Area now to the remaining 85 within this year, Pradhan said.
