Mass housing for 1 lakh families

The Orissa government is mulling to implement a mass housing scheme for providing houses at affordable prices to the economically weaker, lower and middle income group. The project will be implemented in public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

About 1 lakh apartments are proposed to be constructed under the project, for which the public sector State Bank of India (SBI) has agreed to provide the required funds. The government has identified a patch of about 27 acres of land for the purpose. Though the detail cost of the project has not been worked out yet, the cost of houses is likely to be Rs 1000 per square feet of construction area, sources said.

The details of the project were presented to the chief minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday by the PPP cell of the state government. Patnaik is reported to be happy with the novel initiative.

The mass housing project targets to deliver one lakh apartments at affordable prices to the economic weaker section (EWS), lower income group (LIG) and people in the middle income group (MIG).

Vijay Arora, special secretary in the planning and co-ordination department in charge of PPP cell, made power point presentation on nine projects to be taken up in PPP mode in a high level review meeting chaired by the chief minister.

Similarly, to provide an integrated administrative complex at the district level, which would operate and function in the same line as the state secretariat, the PPP cell has proposed setting up of mini secretariats in district headquarters in PPP mode. Besides, the government is also examining setting up of rural multiplex in 1000 Panchayats.