Cenre approves Rs 400cr for urban slum upgrade

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has received Centre's approval for building 10,000 permanent dwelling units for urban poor, entailing an expense of Rs 400 crore.

The Centre would share 50 per cent of the project cost with the state government, said Asok Bhattacharya, minister in charge—urban development and municipal affairs, West Bengal, at the CREDAI (the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India) Realty Expo, 2008, in Kolkata on Wednesday.

The tenements would come up in the municipal areas of Kalyani (Phase II), Pujali (Phase II), Barrackpore (Phase II) and Asansol, said P R Baviskar, CEO of KMDA (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority).

The developers for the project would be chosen on the basis of competitive biddings, he added.

During the 11th five year plan, the state had set a target of constructing about 2 lakh permanent dwelling units in West Bengal, out of which, about 1.22 lakh dwelling units were sanctioned till date, said Bhattacharya.

“CREDAI has to take some initiatives for the social sector housing projects. The members are not very enthusiastic to be associated with them,” the minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, Pradeep Sureka, president, CREDAI, said, the state government should consider the proposal of having special residential zones (SRZ) with tax breaks , so that low cost housing projects became viable.

“The SRZ's should become mandatory for big SEZs (special economic zones), so that slums do not come up in the nearby areas,” Sureka said.