Bhubaneswar, Jan. 12: The hunt for houses at reasonable rates is expected to end shortly with real estate developers evincing interest in a housing project at Chandrasekharpur to accommodate mainly lower-middle and middle class people.
Bhubaneswar Development Authority's venture - Greenfield Housing Project - will be executed in public-private-partnership mode for the first time in the state.
Eleven major real estate developers from across the country yesterday attended a pre-bid meeting for the project. On December 15, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) invited proposals from private real estate players to build 2,600 affordable houses at Chandrasekharpur over an area of 20.31 acres.
Under the scheme, the site developer will get 65 per cent of land for construction of the 2,600 affordable houses, while the rest 35 per cent land will go in favour of the developer.
The houses, which will cost between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, will have a built-up area of 32.2sqm. The executor will provide common facilities such as drinking water supply, road network, power supply, street lights, solid waste management and drainage system. "According to the plan, the government will not spend a penny in the project. The site developers would fund it and incur the cost from the given land. The developer can use the rest of the land for commercial or residential purpose," said an authority official.
It has also decided to bring in major banks and loan providers in the fold to provide easy housing loan assistance to the people. "We held a meeting with 22 major private and public banks, who have assured us of providing easy housing loans to the people in the upcoming project," said the authority's vice-chairman Krishan Kumar.
He said the stakeholders were evincing interest in the project since it was one of its kinds in the state. "The final tendering process will be over by the end of February. The selected developer will get 180 days to complete the project. We are also looking forward to providing the basic civic infrastructure in the proposed site before beginning the project," said the vice-chairman.
The BDA will also execute two similar projects - another one at Chandrasekharpur and Satya Nagar. The Chandrasekharpur project, to be known as Nilamadhav Abas, will accommodate around 5,000 people in 1,250 houses. Another one at Satya Nagar to be known as Santi Nagar Abas will house around 5,200 people in 1,300 affordable houses.
Chandrasekharpur resident Harish Nayak said it was a good move to build such affordable houses for the lower-middle class people. "The housing projects will help the administration provide better houses to the urban poor. It will also facilitate the middle and upper-middle class people to have high-end houses in good price, which will be developed by the private player on its land," said Nayak.
