Govt. To Build 10 Lakh Houses In AP

The state government is planning to construct 10 lakh houses under various schemes during the next financial year.

This was disclosed by Housing Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana after he held a review with the officials of the State Housing Corporation, Rajiv Swagruha and the Housing Board, at the state Secretariat in Hyderabad, on Monday.

The minister said that the Housing Corporation had originally set a target of constructing 5 lakh houses during the financial year 2011-12. However, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had enhanced the target to 6.50 lakh houses to be completed till March this year.

Kanna Lakshminarayana said that the construction of about 3.40 lakh houses has already been completed, while about 4.70 houses have been built till their roofs.

Lakshminarayana stated that nearly 6 lakh houses were sanctioned during the first phase of the Rachabanda program. Of 3.3 lakh houses sanctioned by the Districts' Collectors, the registration of 2.20 lakh has been completed, and nearly 700 houses have been built till the ground level.

In the 2nd phase of Rachabanda, 18 lakh houses were sanctioned. However, the Chief Minister directed the department to take up the project under 3 phases by building 6 lakh houses in the first phase, 5 lakhs in 2nd phase, and the rest in the last phase.

The minister said that under the Rajiv Swagruha scheme, a construction target of 16,000 houses was set. Of them, nearly 5,000 houses have been completed, he said. Further, 2,628 houses are ready to be occupied. These projects are at Bandlaguda, Pocharam and Chandanagar.

The Chief Minister will soon inaugurate the Banglaguda project, Kanna Lakshminarayana said.

Further, as many as 12 projects, with 1,241 units, will be taken up in the next financial year, with an investment of Rs. 208 crore, he told the press. Of them, 252 houses would be for the High-Income Group, 586 for the Middle Income Group and 403 for the Low Income Group.

Admitting that nearly 3 lakh houses under the Indiramma Housing scheme were allotted to wrong beneficiaries, the minister said that the recovery process has already been started, and that out of Rs. 260 crore that was lost, nearly Rs. 4 crore has been recovered so far. (INN)