The State government has said that construction of 1.23 lakh houses of the 2.8 lakh houses proposed under the ambitious two bedroom housing scheme has been completed.
Of these, construction of 32,008 houses was completed in all respects while 90% works were completed in respect of 91,306 houses. The government has taken up the project involving construction of houses spread over 560 sq.ft for poor with an estimated ₹18,520 crore and ₹6,141 crore of the earmarked amount had been spent so far.
According to an official press release, of the total 2.8 lakh houses sanctioned, tenders were invited for 2.38 lakh houses. Tenders for construction of 1.99 lakh houses had been finalised and construction work had commenced in respect of 1.79 lakh houses. While works on 1.23 lakh houses had almost been completed, 55,764 houses were under different stages of construction.
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In the process, the government had given various incentives to the contractors coming forward to take up construction of these houses. These included provision of cement at subsidised price of ₹230 per bag and sand free of cost. The EMD in tenders had been reduced from 2.5% to 1% while the deposit payable by contractors had been brought down from 7.5% to 2%.
Steps had been taken to ensure transparency in payment of bills to the contractors through online project monitoring system wherein the payments were being made through online process without involving manual interface. The progress of the project was being constantly monitored at different levels and the systems put in place for transparency won awards from the HUDCO.