The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is set to start a company to construct low-cost flats.

The project will be a joint venture, said urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya. “From time to time, the company will tie up with private organisations that are already working with government and other bodies on rehabilitation projects, including housing estates for slum-dwellers and the poor,” he explained.

The CMDA has already sent a proposal to the finance department for its approval. “The structure of the company has not been decided. We will finalise that as soon as we get the finance department’s nod,” added Bhattacharya.

The state government has plans to ready at least 50,000 low-cost flats by the end of the year. The CMDA initiative aims at fulfilling the objective.

“The CMDA alone would take a long time to complete a project, so we chalked out the collaboration plan. Moreover, scarcity of funds would be taken care of in the system under consideration,” said the minister.

The CMDA is working on its largest rehabilitation project, involving 2,848 families evicted from the Gobindapur Rail Colony and Nonadanga. The evicted families are now staying in Nonadanga.

The estate they will be rehabilitated in will come up on 10 acres, belonging to the CMDA, in Nonadanga. The valuation of the land, as estimated by the government agency, is between Rs 30 crore and Rs 40 crore.

Each 230-sq-ft flat in the estate would have a bathroom and would cost between Rs 1 to 1.2 lakh.

The cost of construction of the estate has been estimated at Rs 34.17 crore. Expenditure on setting up infrastructure for drainage, water supply and power has been pegged at Rs 7.67 crore.

Half the funds for the project will be provided under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The CMDA will bear 35 per cent of the cost. The flat-owners will have to fork out the remaining 15 per cent.

More than 1,200 families evicted from Tollygunge, Behala and Garden Reach will be rehabilitated under the Calcutta Environment Improvement Project. They will be given flats in Kasba, Purba Putiari, Shampa Mirza Nagar and Purba Barisha.

The Calcutta Improvement Trust will also demolish and reconstruct about 400 flats in Chetla.