Drawing inspiration from Brazil, South Africa and China, the government of Andhra Pradesh is seriously contemplating implementing the mixed housing scheme for inclusive housing for the sector where the economy is informal.
Concepts such ‘My house- my life’ and PPP (public-private-partnership) in Brazil and other government-run inclusive housing schemes have worked wonders for providing housing for the economically weaker sections, and the same is being worked out in AP, which will be in tune with the ‘housing for all’ scheme of the Central government, according to R. Karikal Valaven, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Andhra Pradesh. He was speaking as one of the panel members on the second day on inclusive housing, at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum here on Thursday.
Slums identified
Three slums in Vijayawada, One in Guntur and two in Visakhapatnam were identified and the project would benefit over 12,000 families and it would cost Rs. 500 crore, he said.
Talking of the inclusive mixed housing projects, experts pointed out that the idea was to provide house to all from the low income group and economically weaker sections, without displacing them. “The idea is not to demolish a slum and build another concrete slum. The plan includes providing quality housing, with commercial space which will be allotted to the residents, space for small industries and other amenities such as schools and entertainment. In the first phase we have settled about 14,000 families and the project has been successful,” said Joao Octaviano Machodo Neto, Executive Secretary, Housing, State government of Sao Paulo, Brazil. “Job and housing should go hand in hand and then only we can expect sustainable development or holistic development as stated in the SDG,” said P.K. Mohanty Executive Chairman, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad. In the world there are over 30 million housing shortage and 92 per cent of Indians work in unorganised sector and 72 per cent are in the informal sector, said B. Anand, Joint Secretary from the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India.
