Urban News

Source : The Hindu Date : 29.06.2009

Mysoreans may soon get their dream house

Shankar Bennur

MYSORE: Owning a house in the “city of palaces” may not take too long if the plans of the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) are executed.

Investment option

Following reports that about 40 per cent of site holders in its layouts are “outsiders” who may not construct houses but keep their sites as an investment option, the MUDA is contemplating re-introducing Own Your House Scheme which was discontinued due to technical reasons.

The MUDA had plans to re-introduce the scheme in 2005, but it pulled out from the initiative.

With pressure mounting on it from genuine local site aspirants who want to construct houses here, the officials are contemplating re-launching the scheme at least by the end of the year, after the process of site distribution at the newly developed Ravindranath Tagore Nagar is completed.

Sources in the MUDA told The Hindu that many people had bought its sites as a safe investment option, considering the number of vacant sites in layouts that had been developed 10 or 15 years ago.

“Some people keep sites as an option for liquidation. This is affecting development (construction of houses) in the layouts,” they added.

The MUDA’s project of building apartments in the past did not receive the desired response. The quality of construction did not satisfy the prospective buyers. Therefore, it discontinued the scheme after a couple of projects, including the one in Sharadadevi Nagar.

A senior MUDA official said that houses in categories suiting different income groups such as lower-income groups, middle-income groups and high-income groups had been proposed. “The houses can be affordable and at the same time fulfil people’s desire to own a house,” he said. The proposal may be brought up at the next board meeting. “On getting the green signal, the layouts where the housing project can be taken up will be identified and other modalities will be completed afterwards,” he added.

There were plans in the past to re-introduce the scheme in areas such as Vijayanagar 4th Stage, Hebbal Layout and Sathagalli-Devanuru Layout.

Source : The Hindu Date : 29.06.2009

Building-owners may have to pay Rs. 5,000 each for water line

Staff Correspondent

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

ADDITIONAL WATER: A file photo of the old and the new main water supply pipelines that have been laid from the Thumbe vented dam to supply drinking water to Mangalore.

MANGALORE: The Mangalore City Corporation has proposed to collect Rs. 5,000 each from the owners of houses, commercial and other establishments in Mannagudda ward to connect the new water supply lines to their buildings, on an experimental basis.

It can go ahead with this experiment only if its council approves this proposal at its meeting on Tuesday.

The new water supply pipelines have been laid in the city under the loan from the Asian Development Bank. The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has laid the pipelines for the civic body under Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP).

Mayor M. Shankar Bhat told The Hindu on Sunday that the KUIDFC had brought it to the attention of the corporation that providing new water supply lines to houses and other structures might cost Rs. 5,000 each. Hence, the corporation had proposed to collect the amount from the people in Mannagudda ward on an experimental basis. It would decide on collecting the amount from the people in other wards later. The subject would be discussed in the council on Tuesday, he said.

The Mayor said that as the Government had laid an additional main water supply line between the city and Thumbe vented dam, the city would get 16 MLD (million litres a day) more water when the works related to inter-linking of the distribution lines were complete.

Property tax

The Mayor said that the council would take a decision on revising the property tax rate under self-assessment scheme (SAS) on Tuesday. An expert committee constituted to look into this subject had completed its sittings. “It is ready with the recommendations. They will be placed before the council on Tuesday,” he said. The then administrator of the corporation had fixed the tax rate for residential properties at 0.6 per cent (or Rs. 600 for capital value of Rs. 1 lakh) and for commercial properties at 2 per cent (or Rs. 2,000 for capital value of Rs. 1 lakh). However, the councillors had been urging the corporation to revise the tax rate, he said. The Mayor said that the civic body was yet to take a decision on imposing the user fee and connection charge for linking houses and establishments with underground drainage pipelines, newly laid here under the KUDCEMP.