Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) of the Department of Municipal Administration & Urban Development has commissioned Osmania University’s Regional Center for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES) for identifying families in the Low Income Groups (LIG) in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across Telangana for taking up construction of two-bedroom housing.
Mission Director T.K. Sreedevi informed on Sunday that while 1.86 lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) families have been chosen for the providing two-bedroom houses for the urban poor based on the household survey across 68 ULBs, there is a significant section of population just outside the category needing houses. “We are conducting the demand survey to assess the actual numbers required for taking up the two-bedroom houses scheme under the credit linked subsidy scheme where up to ₹6 lakh grand will be provided as grant as another vertical. Once we have the details, we will put it across the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) for funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY),” she explained.
MEPMA, designated as the State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA) for implementation of PMAY under ‘Housing for All Mission’ for providing houses to all eligible urban poor families in Telangana, has already submitted and obtained sanction for 1,06,305 new houses from the Centre at a total cost of about ₹1,600 crore. The Central Government had earlier sanctioned 80,481 houses in 64 ULBs (including GHMC) two years ago itself tying up with the State Government’s 2BHK programme.
In a presentation made to CSMC few days ago, MEPMA officials gave a presentation, including details of the left over ULBs requirement, clarified Dr. Sreedevi, also the Commissioner & Director of Municipal Administration. MEPMA in association with the district collectorates had earmarked vacant land sites closer to the existing habitations in most ULBs for taking up construction of the houses with the mission to complete all the works by the end of 2018 for the free 2BHK housing.
“We have selected sites closer to the residential colonies as it will be easier to provide basic amenities like roads, sewerage, street lighting, etc., to be taken up by the local municipal authority while the water tap connection is in-built into the scheme where unit cost is ₹5.4 lakh with ₹1.5 lakh being Centre’s grant,” she said.
Open spaces will be developed later into parks or playgrounds as the funds come in. Actual construction will be taken up in phases by the respective district collectors with MEPMA being the monitoring and disbursing authority for the housing programme.
“Ground work has begun for construction of at least 30,000 houses in ULBs across the State,” added L. Vandan Kumar, Additional Mission Director, MEPMA.
