Bhubaneswar: The development authority's dream to develop five affordable housing complexes in the city to provide quality accommodation to the people, mainly those belonging to the poorer sections of the society, has not moved much since its inception in 2016.

The promise has remained largely on paper with not even a brick been laid at the project sites planned at Satya Nagar, Chandrasekharpur, Gadakana and Subuddhipur under the state government's Housing for All Scheme.

The plan was to create a stock of more than 5,000 affordable housing units and 2,600 of those were to have been built at Satya Nagar. Sources said the project was getting delayed as people were protesting against their eviction from the sites.

However, the insiders of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority said the problem existed in the tender documents of several projects.

"We had invited proposal for the projects at Chandrasekharpur and Satya Nagar, but got lesser participation in the first attempt," said a development authority official.

He said it was true that the people were mobilising themselves to oppose many such projects, but the case was not the same with each one.

"There were no opposition from the people at Chandrasekharpur since we have identified a vacant land for the project and decided to rehabilitate the people of nearby slums. However, problems exist with a project at Satya Nagar," said the official.

To tackle people's opposition to the project, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had conducted several community meetings at several slums and also roped in voluntary organisations to settle disputes. "We have succeeded in getting support for the project. The beneficiaries have also been identified for many of the projects," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar, however, said all disputes related to the people's opposition and tender flaws had been resolved.

"We have finalised the tender documents and got potential bidders to take up the projects. The work at Gadakana and Satya Nagar will begin in a month," said Kumar.

Being a first-of-its-kind project, the government believed that the scheme would succeed. The bidders will develop affordable houses on 65 per cent of the land and the remaining portion would be used to their liking. However, looking at the pace of the projects, it seems that the project has failed to take off.

"The scheme is good, but I am surprised why it didn't find executors. I haven't gone through the proposal, but I suppose there must be some flaws in the tender document. The government should overcome it," said real-estate developer Sangram Nayak.