Conceived, and developed by local businessman Eric Correa’s Souharda Foundation, each house – a one bedroom-hall-kitchen independent house measuring 450 square feet – and costing Rs. 3.05 lakh to construct, were given free of cost to economically-backward persons.
“For eight years we have been living in a small rented house. We could never think about owning a house like this,” said Safiya Aleem, whose husband works as an autorickshaw driver in Moodbidri. Her family was allotted one of the 32 houses in Souharda Nagar II, around eight kilometres from Moodbidri, officially on Saturday.
A total of 31 families, or over 140 persons, will be given houses free of cost in the first phase of the project (one house will be kept as a site office). The foundation had donated 34 houses to impoverished families for their Souharda Nagar I project which was completed in January 2012.
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While that was predominately funded by Mr. Correa, the second project saw donations coming from real estate businessmen Ronald Colaco and Roshan Monteiro, among others. Construction on the second phase will start soon, in which another 32 houses will be donated.
“We received over 500 applications. Based on income, number of members in their family and selecting those who could not afford a house, we narrowed it to around 70 people who were called for an interview,” said Titus Noronha, one of the trustees of the foundation.