The relocation project for the slum dwellers of Rangamatia got a head
start with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) signing an MoU
with the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) here on
Monday.
As per the proposal, 600 housing units will be constructed
for the slum dwellers in Gadakan mouza. The General Administration (GA)
department has handed over five acres of land for the project taken up
under the Ministry of Urban Development’s scheme Rajiv Awas Yojana
(RAY).
Slum dwellers mostly from Munda Sahi in Mancheswar, Patra Sahi and Dasaraj Basti will be rehabilitated under the project.
BMC
Commissioner Sanjib Mishra said the Rangamatia rehabilitation project
is the first project in the country to become operational under RAY.
For
the project, G+4 (ground floor and four floors) model apartments will
be constructed. The housing units will have basic amenities like
sewerage, drainage, electrification, roads and water supply.
The
cost of the project is about ` 54 crore which will be shared by the
Central Government (50 per cent), State Government (30 per cent) and the
beneficiary (20 per cent).
BMC project officer (RAY) Srimanta
Mishra said the beneficiaries share will be between ` 80,000 and ` one
lakh. BMC has already begun peripheral work on the project which is
expected to be completed in two years.
Some of the slum dwellers,
who have received patta from the Government, initially resisted to be
relocated to apartments. They did not want to give up independent piece
of land for an apartment based housing. Since location of rehabilitation
is within 1.5 kms of their original houses, it will be an advantage for
the slum dwellers.
BMC Mayor AN Jena said they have decided to
clamp down on the increasing number of slums in the city. “We will not
allow any more slum to come up,” Jena said.
Presently, there are
more than 300 slums that have been identified by the BMC. Every year,
the number of slums has been steadily rising and rehabilitating them has
become a problem for the corporation.
