CHENNAI: The total requirement for urban housing for slum and
non-slum households under ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing For All’
scheme in the State is 8.03 lakh, according to a demand survey done by
Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.

The State, which signed an MoU with the Union government, had to
conduct a survey for assessing the actual housing requirement. It is a
basic necessity following which the State has to come out with a Housing
for All plan of action.

According to census figures, the State
has a total of 16.24 lakh urban slum households of which 7.53 lakh live
in the 12 corporations. The State currently requires an additional 12.94
lakh homes to be provided to the urban poor, 6.72 lakh of which are
required in the 12 corporations.

As per the Housing For All mission, the
houses constructed should either be in the name of the female head of
the household or as joint ownership. The annual income limit for
beneficiaries under the economic weaker section is about Rs 3 lakh per
year. For beneficiaries under the low-income group, the number is
between Rs 3-6 lakh per year.

Sources said that the focus is now on
constructing affordable houses for the slums and non-slum households. It
is learnt that the guidelines for building affordable houses have been
prepared. The affordable homes have been distinguished under three
categories with areas up to 40, 60 and 75 square metres.

Similarly, the Slum Clearance Board is
looking at innovative methods to construct housing for poor as mandated
by the scheme. “Among the available new technologies in the construction
sector for building tenements, the Slum Clearance Board is looking at
prefabrication, monolithic construction and Glass Fiber Reinforced
Gypsum,” sources said.

In fact, prefabrication is being used in
three ongoing projects in Moorthingar Street in North Chennai,
Sholinganallur in South Chennai and Erode.

The Slum Clearance Board is also
encouraging tenders where any approved technology is acceptable for
implementation. Institutions like IIT Madras, National Institute of
Technology Trichy and Anna University are engaged in evolving new
technologies, TNSCB sources said.

Meanwhile, the Slum Clearance Board has
proposed to conduct a workshop on technology innovation along with the
Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) in mid-June
for technocrats, engineers, builders and developers.

Four new variants

Prefabrication: Used for multi-storey
projects. Columns, beams, lintels with sunshade are manufactured to the
given dimension in factories or precast yards and brought to sites
during implementation.

Monolithic construction: Modular
formwork made out of aluminium plastic composites are used for walls,
floors, slabs, stairs together with window openings, cast in one place.

Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum: Consists
of building panel products made of calcined gypsum, plaster, reinforced
with glass fibres for mass scale building construction.

Pre-engineered building: Entire
structure is pre-sheared, pre-punched, pre-drilled, pre-welded and
pre-formed in factories before being shipped to the site for erection.