The Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) will make a renewed bid to venture into low-cost group housing scheme on the lines of apartments built by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA).
Senior MUDA officials including its chairman M.V. Rajiv visited a few BDA flats in Kengeri on Friday to apprise themselves of the construction and the plans are to replicate such models in Mysuru as well.
Mr. Rajiv said there was a land crunch in Mysuru and the city’s horizonal expansion could not be sustained infinitely as people were wary of commuting long distances from the city. Besides, MUDA had a pending list of nearly 1.5 lakh site applicants all of whom could not be provided with sites. Hence group housing and vertical growth model with multi-storeyed apartments was the only way forward and the MUDA was serious about it
The MUDA delegation was led by the Mysuru district in-charge Minister S.T.S omashekar and comprised MUDA Commissioner Natesh and senior BDA engineers and officials. The delegation also sought information pertaining to civic amenities provided in the apartment complexes including UGD, open spaces and parks, roads, installation of rain water harvesting system etc.
Mr.R ajiv said it is the first time that the MUDA was venturing into low-cost housing and it would benefit the commoners. The plan is to construct 2BHK and 3BHK flats on the available MUDA plots within the city. The proposed entry of MUDA into construction of luxury apartments which was mooted a few years ago but never really took off, has been dropped.
Mr. Rajiv said the MUDA plans to construct about 6,000 to 8,000 housing units under the current plan and make it available to the public at an affordable price. Low cost need not be confused with low quality and it would be attractive, he said and pointed out that there was adequate land to take up such construction along the periphery of the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
This is not the first time that the MUDA had announced its intention to promote group housing and opt for vertical growth model to overcome land scarcity.
A similar scheme was announced more than 3 years ago but the government stipulated new norms and pegged MUDA’s investment in it at no more than 15 per cent. This meant that the rest of the funding had to come from the house aspirants and the project remained grounded. MUDA tried to overcome the cash crunch arising out of the norms by toying with the idea of creating a few luxury apartments for the middle and higher income groups so as to cross-subsidise the cost for low-cost apartments but it never took off.
Meanwhile, other officials in the MUDA said plot development and creation of new layouts will not be dispensed by the MUDA as there are people with higher income preferring independent plots for construction and are prepared to pay a premium price.
