Bhubaneswar: With affordable housing schemes for slum dwellers, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Friday rolled out its prestigious slum redevelopment project from Shanti Nagar Slum in the city.
The project’s aim is two-fold: To achieve better standard of living for the slum dwellers in the capital and to ensure socio-economic development of all sections of people in the future smart city. In fact, the officials also held several rounds of discussions with the slum dwellers before going ahead with the execution of the project.
The project, known as Shanti Nagar Awas Yojana, will be part of the government’s Housing for All Policy-2015 under which the state wants to provide affordable housing for all the urban poor and make the cities free from slums. Officials at the discussion also considered the suggestions made by the slum dwellers.
“They have requested for an assurance in black and white before handing over their property for development. Therefore, we have decided to issue certificates to beneficiaries,” said a top official of BMC.
According to sources, the project with 2200 housing units is expected to be completed within 30 months. Meanwhile, beneficiaries can either stay in the transit houses or in rented houses until the project is completed. The civic body has also decided to give `2500 per month for those opting to stay in rented houses.
Besides affordable houses, the families coming under the scheme at Shanti Nagar will have neighbourhood shopping area, community centre, public library, livelihood development centre, Anganwadi and other facilities. The housing complex will also have better internal roads, sewerage treatment facilities and drainage system.
Meanwhile, sources informed Orissa POST that officials are also exploring the use of advanced construction technologies for faster execution of the project.
“We are planning to use the best technologies in the construction sector for the speedy execution of the project. So, the project would get completed even before two years and it would even change the demographics of the location. In fact, it would be difficult to call the location a slum after the completion of the project,” said a top official of Bhubaneswar Development Authority.
PNN