Indian Express 10.03.2010
State says no to funding civic body’s housing project for the poor
Express News Service Tags : housing, pune Posted: Wednesday, Mar 10, 2010 at 0402 hrs
Pune: The state government refusal to fund the ambitious low-income housing (LIG) project initiated by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has come as a blow to the civic body.A total of 6,720 tenements were scheduled to be built in the first phase of the project, for which the state government was supposed to give Rs 33.72 crore to PCMC, from which it has now backed out. It has sent a letter to PCMC expressing its inability to pay up the money due to paucity of funds. Opposition parties have criticised the ruling NCP, saying that the people will suffer as the prices of houses will now go up.
Shiv Sena corporator Shrirang Barne said, “We always supported the idea of low cost housing, but the LIG project was a failure from the first day as it is not pratically possible to provide a flat at Rs. 1.5 lakh, the price of which may now go upto Rs 3 lakh. The ruling party publicised the project just to get publicity. PCMC should have acted realistically while planning the project. Now that the state government has refused to pay its share, PCMC would now have to foot the bills for which it would take loan. It is shocking that though there is a coalition of the NCP at the Centre and they also rule PCMC, they cannot get funds for the project. This project shows a lack of vision and planning on the part of the ruling party and former municipal commissioner.”
PCMC started work on the LIG project, after it was approved under JNNURM.
The PCMC has planned to construct houses admeasuring 550 sq ft for people from low economic backround, which would be available to them at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh. The initial cost of the project was pegged at Rs 450 crore, the proposal of which was put up before the Centre former civic chief Dilip Band and was subsequently approved.
As many as 77,044 people had applied to PCMC for getting houses under the LIG project. From these, the applications of 15,886 were approved, the announcements regarding which were made in June 2008.PCMC officials said that a total of Rs. 475 crore was approved by the LIG housing project under JNNURM. The central government gave the first installment of 56.21 crore in March 2008. The PCMC floated tenders of Rs 262 crore for first two phases of the project. But the state government did not pay up its share of Rs. 34 crore. Later, the state government conveyed its inability to fund the project due to paucity of funds. So, the PCMC decided to take a loan of Rs 200 crore from HUDCO for completing the project. The work on constructing 160 buildings at Chikhali has started. The building would be seven stories each consisting of 42 flats of 550 sq feet. Around 6,720 flats will be constructed in the next two years.
PCMC officials said that the rates of all raw materials have gone up in the past two years and so has the cost of the project. Contractors are demanding increased rates and so the price of each LIG house is expected to go upto Rs 3 lakh.
