The Times of India            30.10.2013

BMC inks deal for 600 RAY houses

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar municipal corporation (BMC) on Monday signed an MoU with National Building Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC) for construction of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) houses at Gadakana here.

Sources said the RAY houses were to be constructed at Rangamatia. Following opposition from locals, the BMC instead chose Gadakana, where 600 houses would be constructed over five acre by NBCC, a public sector undertaking under ministry of urban development.

"The model for the houses has been approved. There will be four floors. It will help rehabilitate slum dwellers of Mancheswar Munda Sahi, Patra Sahi and Dasaraj Basti. The total cost of the project is Rs 54 crore," said RAY project officer Srimanta Mishra.

He said while Union government would share 50% of the project cost, the state would chip in with 30% and the beneficiaries 20%.

The central sanctioning and monitoring committee (CSMC) on RAY approved the funding for the BMC.

The city has 436 slums and after a survey, about 70,000 households were identified under RAY. In May, the civic body roped in a Hyderabad-based private company for demarcation of slum areas through a geographic information system (GIS).

The company put up pillars at the slums for demarcation of the actual area, where RAY houses would be constructed. The civic body would get the satellite imagery of slum areas and keep them as proof for socio-economic survey. "We will integrate the satellite imagery of slums with the socio-economic survey, which includes collating data of individual slum dwellers. The information will help us offer RAY houses to them," said BMC commissioner Sanjib Mishra.

The commissioner said the BMC got Rs 2.4 crore under the centrally-sponsored 'challenge funds' for the proposed street vending project last month. "As many as 19 locations have been identified for vending zones. About 547 vendors will be rehabilitated," he said.