Orissa State Housing Board Building in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 8: The Orissa State Housing Board (OSHB) has so far been building houses only for lower and middle-income groups.

But that image of the state’s premier housing body is set to change with OSHB planning to come up with a luxury housing scheme at Dharmavihar over an area of 1.72 acre.

The price range of the apartments would vary between Rs 45 lakh and Rs 60 lakh. To this some additional costs might be added making the cost of three bedroom houses around Rs 48 lakh and the four bedroom flats around Rs 61 lakh.

The four bedroom flats will come with servant’s quarters. The flats will be equipped with state-of-the-art accessories. A senior housing board officer said the applicants will have to deposit 10 per cent of the cost of the building as earnest money while the rest of the amount would have to be paid within two years. The construction would be completed within two and half years from the date of allotment. The allotment would be made through a lottery system.

The apartments will have lifts and power backup. The area will also have a green belt around it.

Senior housing board officers said Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is likely to accord approval to the project shortly after the final approval of the housing and urban development minister is obtained. The project would be advertised within a fortnight.

Meanwhile, the housing and urban development minister has set up a high power expert committee on Tuesday to approve a proposed housing project at Suango on the outskirts of the city. The experts drawn from various professional bodies will evaluate the project and give their views.

Recently, the housing board had also advertised a housing project near Ransinghpur for lower and middle-income groups.

Despite these schemes, OSHB continues to lag behind in constructing the required number of houses in and around the capital to meet the growing demand for houses.

“While the board has increased the price of the lower income and middle income group houses, there are not enough houses. The housing board was established to form a housing bank, but it has failed miserably to do so. Rather, the BDA which was actually created to promote infrastructure development has created more housing units in the recent times,” said one of the applicants for an OSHB housing project.