Patna, Nov. 9: Over 250 families can soon move into their dream homes after spending years in shabby slums in Phulwarisharif and Khagaul.

Altogether 192 dwelling units in Phulwarisharif and 64 in Khagaul have been constructed for the slum dwellers as part of the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme. Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) has been entrusted with the task of constructing residential societies for slum dwellers at four sites in and around the state capital.

“We have completed construction of 192 dwelling units at Ishopur in Phulwarisharif and 64 at Saidpura in Khagaul a month ago. We are in talks with the state urban development department, the state-level nodal agency to implement the BSUP scheme, to hand over these units to the beneficiaries at the earliest,” a senior Hudco official.

BSUP is a sub-mission of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and comes under the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation. The scheme focuses on integrated development of slums over the seven-year period beginning 2005.

Sources in Hudco said the cost of each dwelling unit, including site development and infrastructure, has been worked out at Rs 2.42 lakh. The total cost of developing 192 dwellings at Ishopur and 64 at Saidpura has been estimated around Rs 4.6 crore and Rs 1.55 crore respectively.

The final allotment of these houses to the beneficiaries may take some more time because the number of the registered recipients is much more than the dwelling units. A source said 300 slum dwellers in Khagaul and 500 in Phulwarishariff have registered themselves for the 64 dwelling units at Saidpura and 192 at Ishopur respectively. Under such circumstances, the source said, the urban development department have to make fresh selection of the registered beneficiaries for the final allotment.

The dwelling units at both the sites have basic civic facilities such as water supply system, tube wells, drainage system, electricity meters and solar panels to light up the streets. “Though the facilities are already in place at both the sites, they will become functional only after possession is handed over to the beneficiaries. We also want to form committees of residents, which would be in charge of the maintenance of the facilities,” the Hudco official said.

Apart from these two locations, Hudco is developing 144 dwelling units at Sarifaganj at an estimated cost of Rs 3.5 crore and 48 at Mangal Talab, Patna City at Rs 1.16 crore.

The state government had in January 2008 signed a memorandum of understanding with Hudco, appointing the corporation as the as the implementing agency of BSUP scheme at 60 sites in Patna and seven locations in Bodhgaya. According to the deal, the scheme was supposed to be executed within one-and-a-half year.

Though three years have passed since then, work has begun at only four sites. Hudco sources attributed “non-availability of clear and hindrance-free sites, litigations, non-acquisition of land by the government and the beneficiaries’ reluctance to vacate their land” as some of the reasons for the delay.