Bihar State Housing Board Colony at Bahadurpur in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Residents’ hope of moving in to 25,000 well-furnished homes across the state has been dashed with developers entrusted with the task going incommunicado all of a sudden.

A little over a year after Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB) planned to construct 25,000 swanky flats across the state, no construction has started yet.

In May 2011, the board decided to work on the development and redevelopment of several residential and some commercial projects over 1,000 acres of land.

Sources in the BSHB said many developers have stopped communicating about the scheme, though they showed keen interest in the initial phase of the project.

“After repeated queries in the first few months, many developers have stopped responding to the calls of the board. Few of them have expressed their unhappiness with the slow progress of the project in the initial stages. Some of them expressed scepticism about execution of the scheme in future,” a BSHB source said.

In May 2011, BSHB — an undertaking of the state urban development department — had issued expression of interest from reputed firms and companies with the objective of developing one lakh housing units in a public-private-partnership mode.

The board offered 12 sites in Patna and 21 others in cities like Gaya, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur for development and renovation.

The board received over 100 applications from several companies, including DLF Home Developers, Mumbai-based Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited, Delhi-based Parsvnath Developers Limited and Bengal Shristi Infrastructure Development Limited.

The board had on November 28, 2011, approved construction of about 25,000 flats, including 10,000 in the state capital. In the first week of March this year, the state finance department cleared the proposal. However, things have not moved further.

Urban development department minister Prem Kumar said: “The proposal is under chief minister Nitish Kumar’s cosideration. After he gives an in-principle approval to the proposal, it would be presented before the cabinet for its nod.”