The government plans to build 750 homes, 100 more than what Mamata Banerjee had promised, for the residents of the fire-ravaged Number 4 Basanti Colony in Ultadanga.

“We want to build 750 permanent houses for the fire victims but before that as many temporary homes have to come up,” urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said on Sunday. “Work on 250 of the temporary houses will start at the earliest.”

A day after the January 12 blaze, which gutted at least 450 shanties and left 2,500 people homeless, Mamata announced at the site that she would get 650 homes rebuilt by the various women welfare groups of her railway ministry.

Political parties are determined to outdo one another to win over the blaze victims before the civic polls, but there has been no attempt to resolve the ownership dispute over the slum site that has been claimed by both the railways and the state.

Mamata had said on January 13 that the railways had acquired the plot from the state government long ago. But according to mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, the ownership title still rests with the CMDA.