Gujarat to adopt redevelopment policy' for affordable housing

The Gujarat government is all set to announce a 'redevelopment policy' to initiate building of affordable houses in place of old colonies, a senior official said here today.
The plan is to build 1 lakh affordable houses in cities like Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat, Urban Development and Urban Housing (UDD) Secretary Mona Khandhar said.
According to her, the policy is ready and will be announced "very soon".
"We have already prepared the final policy draft and it will be announced very soon. This is the first time in Gujarat where a redevelopment policy will be launched," she said.
The policy primarily aims to build new houses in place of old and dilapidated houses built around 15 to 25 years ago in major cities, by the Gujarat Housing Board (GHB), which is the state's nodal agency for construction of affordable houses.

"We want to provide new and improved houses to those living in houses which show signs of aging and are in a dilapidated condition. Apart from being bigger in size, these new houses would also have several amenities like better parking space," she said, adding these new houses would be built on the same land on which old housing colonies stand.
"The biggest benefit to occupants is that they will get bigger houses. Our aim is to build 1 lakh new houses in five years. These 1 lakh houses also include many old houses which will be replaced with new ones," she said.

"In addition, we will be able to add new apartments by constructing multistoreyed buildings on the same land where buildings with very less floors were built earlier. Through this initiative, optimal use of available land would be achieved," she said.