Pocket-friendly homes for all in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government is all set to create 5,000 affordable housing units in the city soon by involving private developers, housing and urban development (H&UD) secretary Injeti Srinivas told media here.

"Government will provide land to private developers for the housing units at Gothapatna. The expression of interest will be published within two to three months," Srinivas told reporters.

He said the government has earmarked around 100 acre for low cost housing projects here, of which around 15 to 20 acre will be given to selected developers for coming up with the projects.

The government will undertake such a venture for economically weaker sections (EWS) and lower income groups (LIG) for the first time after it enunciated the Scheme for Affordable Urban Housing in Odisha-2012. The government has kept a benchmark of income up to Rs 7,500 per month as EWS and Rs 7,501 to Rs 15,000 as LIG.

The H&UD secretary said the houses will be available in the range of Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. Once the housing projects come up there, government will connect the locality by city buses. As per the government policy, while at least 75% of dwelling units of such projects shall be utilized for EWS and LIG housing, the developer shall be free to use the balance area in any manner subject to building regulations.

After Bhubaneswar, government plans to roll out the scheme in others cities such as Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Puri, besides Jharsuguda, Jajpur, Kalinganagar, Angul, Balasore and Paradeep in the first phase.

Srinivas said the government aims to create 20,000 housing units per year for EWS and LIG category using different models involving the city development agencies, Odisha State Housing Board and private developers.

Srinivas said Odisha needs an estimated 4.10 lakh EWS and LIG urban housing units at present. The state needs funds to the tune of Rs 15,120 crore to meet the target of houses for beneficiaries under Rajiv Awas Yojna (RAY) alone while Bhubaneswar alone needs Rs 1,680 crore for the same. Since the government alone can't arrange such huge funds, private developers will be involved in carrying out certain projects," Srinivas told Times of India.

Private developers had mixed reaction to the latest government move. "Huge cost of land is a major impediment for builders to launch low cost housing projects. Unless the government brings down the land cost, it will be difficult for developers to execute projects for EWS and LIG categories," said Real Estate Developers Association of Odisha (REDA) president Pradipa Kumar Biswaroy. 

Sharing similar views, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) national joint secretary D S Tripathy said the government should provide land at an attractive rate to developers to undertake affordable housing projects. "At the current rate, it will be difficult to attract developers for affordable housing projects. Since the government owns 75% land in Bhubaneswar, correction in land price will encourage affordable housing projects. Since buyers in this segment are huge, it will also boost the sluggish real estate market," Tripathy said.