Telangana: Cheaper cement and sand help to build 2BHK houses for poor
KCR will hold a mass house warming ceremony to hand over 2BHK houses in his two adopted villages on Dec 23.
Hyderabad: Cheaper cement and free sand has been giving a fillip to Telangana state government's flagship programme of constructing 2BHK houses for poor.
The scheme, which remains the major poll promise of TRS, failed to make headway even after the government completing its half-term in office, with contractors unwilling to take up works citing the unit cost prescribed by the government 'financially unviable'.
To break the deadlock, the state government held talks with cement companies to supply cement for cheaper rate recently. The cement firms agreed to supply cement for just Rs 230 per bag against market price of Rs 330 for the next three years and signed a MoU with government to this effect. Thereafter, the government announced to provide sand for free.
Both these initiatives have turned encouraging for contractor, who are now approaching government to take up the works. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will be holding a mass house warming ceremony to handover 2BHK houses to beneficiaries in his two adopted villages Erravelli and Narsannapeta on December 23, where the construction has been completed, has also enthused the housing department to speed up works in other districts.
In this backdrop, housing minister A.Indrakaran Reddy held a meeting with collectors of Adilabad, Nirmal, Asifabad and Mancherial districts on Wednesday to speed up construction of 2BHK houses in these districts. Housing principal secretary Chitra Ramachandran was also present.
“Since the issues of cement and sand, which comprise the major component of construction expenditure, have been resolved now, the contractors are coming forward to take up the works. We have now decided to put the 2BHK scheme on fast track mode. Plans have been readied to construct over 2 lakh houses within a year,” said Mr Reddy.
About 1 lakh houses would be built in GHMC limits alone, while the remaining lakh will be built in districts. “Administrative approvals to call tenders and start construction works in all districts will be issued this month,” Mr Reddy added.