Vijayawada: The state government has identified the lacunae in taking forward the urban housing scheme.
The top bosses of the department of housing have noticed that former Secretary (Housing) Luv Agarwal and his team of officers alleged disinclination towards operating the scheme in EPC mode leading to delaying of the process for a long time. After completion of 2.5 years, the department is now getting ready to rectify the mistakes.
A few key officers in the housing have discouraged the Engineering, Procurement and Construction mode in carrying out the project, as in this procedure, the houses will be handed over directly to the government in one go, wherein the scope for frequent kickbacks or commissions will be almost zero.
Following the failure of the housing bureaucrats in addressing the issue of urban housing for homeless, the Chief Minister himself has contemplated setting up the AP Town Planning and Infrastructure Development Corporation, for which he is the chairman and technocrat Ramnath Velamati the vice-chairman.
The APTPIDC that was formed in August last year has recently completed the exercise of preparing action plan, back end procedures, policies and guidelines, for the urban housing.
“We have recently completed the procedural formalities,” Mr Velamati said and added that strict guidelines have been framed to benefit the real homeless in urban AP.
“The scheme will function with the subsidies being provided by Union and State Governments,” he said. But the irony is that as to how the state government and APTPIDC will execute the NTR Housing for the urban poor, in the next two years.
EPC is a popular model being adopted globally in many projects like road construction, and rooftop solar projects, generally, and in Ketakanonda, near Ibrahimpatnam, a model sophisticated housing has been developed, with the pre-fabricated and pipelined concrete slab that is termite free, rust-free and water-proof.
In later stages, the housing authorities have conveniently ignored the follow up process. “Around Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6.5 lakh per 2BHK construction within an extent of 300 sq ft to 450 sq ft was estimated then,” a housing official said.
The official expressed doubt as to how the APTPIDC would garner the financial support for more than two lakh houses estimated under urban housing.
