The Hindu 14.07.2009

Home loans given to slum dwellers

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation handed over loans to 76 beneficiaries from slums to build houses under the Basic Services to Urban Poor scheme.

The project is being implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

One of the infrastructure development projects being implemented in 63 cities under the mission is the one to make these slum-free.

Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai are the cities chosen from Tamil Nadu for the mission.

More than 12,000 houses are to be provided for people living in the slums that have come up along roads, railway lines and water bodies.

Mayor R. Venkatachalam handed over cheques for the loan amount to the beneficiaries at a function in the city on Monday. The beneficiaries were chosen from Wards 62 and 63.

While one section got Rs.28,000 another got Rs.28, 350 for each of the beneficiaries.

The total amount of loans provided was more than Rs. 21 lakh.

The Mayor said that out of the 12,630 houses to be provided under the project, 1.073 had been completed.

Work was under progress on 2,924 houses and work orders had already been issued for another 3,583. Now, 76 more had been cleared and loans provided, he said.

“The poor beneficiaries are extremely happy that they will get good houses along with basic amenities in their colony under this scheme,” he said.