Zeroing in on a suitable piece of land for constructing apartment complexes for beneficiaries under the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) housing project could be one of the major agendas for the newly elected leadership of the city Corporation in the welfare sector.
For three years, the officials handling the project have been on the look out for land for the third phase of the project, in which landless families will be accommodated in flat complexes. Though the officials had identified land in some wards in the outskirts of the city, the price of land has often come as a roadblock. The civic body has been unable to match the price demanded by the land owners, most of whom wanted amounts close to the market rate. The Corporation officials had requested the State government for more flexibility in the fixing of the rates, but a favourable response has not been received yet. The Fisheries Department had issued such an order for some of its housing projects two years back, enabling the acquisition of land at rates close to the market rates.
"Some of the plots that we had identified are still under consideration. A decision regarding these has to be taken by the newly-elected council. As of now, a flat project under the LIFE project has begun at Poonkulam. This land was acquired earlier for a housing project under the Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) project," said an official.
14,000 applications
In the latest call for applications for the LIFE project in October, more than 14,000 applications were received in the city Corporation. Out of this, 3800 applicants own land of their own and need only money for construction of an individual housing unit. The remaining applications are for accommodation in the flat complexes which are part of the project. In the second phase of call for applications, as many as 18,008 applications were received, out of which 9000 applicants were short-listed following the scrutiny process and adalat.
