Bookings for the much-awaited swanky flats of the Bihar State Housing Board would start from October.

Acting promptly after Tuesday’s cabinet nod for constructing 26,170 flats, along with commercial establishments in Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur, the managing director of Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB), Anupam Kumar Suman, on Wednesday said tenders for the construction work would be floated within a month.

The constructions would start after the monsoon. “BSHB would be taking up new construction projects after almost three decades. We are intending to award the contract within four months, which would be followed by commencement of bookings. Bookings would be done through scheduled commercial banks by paying a nominal amount of Rs 500-1,500, as application fees, along with a certain amount of reserve money at any of the banks tied with us. Allotment would be done through open-lottery system,” said Suman.

Highlighting the pricing of the flats, Suman added: “Though we are yet to finalise the cost of different categories of flats, it would be definitely less by around 50 per cent of the market price of the same flat quoted by private developers.”

The cabinet on Tuesday sanctioned the project, which would be executed under public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The project was first put up before chief minister Nitish Kumar in December 2010. The corresponding proposal went to the cabinet at least four times since then but could not get an approval.

According to the terms and conditions of the BSHB, a private firm would develop housing units on residential plot and in return they would get commercial land on which they would get lease rights for development of hotels, malls and offices.

There would be four types of flats under the project — one bedroom and hall-kitchen (BHK), two BHK, three BHK and four BHK — which would be allotted under lower-income group, middle-income group and higher-income group. The average carpet area of one BHK, two BHK, three BHK and four BHK flats would be around 500sqft, 700sqft, 1,000sqft and 2,000sqft, respectively.

Suman added that the price of the flats would not be affected by the proposed hike in the minimum value register or circle rate in the state, as the land is already acquired by the BSHB and the price of the flats does not include the cost of the land.

Speaking on the relocation of existing occupants at Bahadurpur and Lohia Nagar for two redevelopment projects, Suman said: “We would be following zero displacement theory, where new apartments would be developed at the existing open space on the BSHB campuses at the two sites. Once the occupants are shifted to the new apartments, the old ones would be razed. The occupants, who have made full payments against their allotments, would be given first preference.”