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Kollam dist to implement People's Housing Scheme

Our Bureau

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 1

KOLLAM district of Kerala has become the first among the 528 districts in the country to implement a massive programme to provide shelter for all under the People's Housing Scheme, a participatory joint venture of beneficiaries and the three-tier panchay at system with financial assistance from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).

Speaking to newspersons here, Mr. V. Suresh, Chairman and Managing Director, said HUDCO had so far sanctioned a loan of Rs. 87.50 crores for 25,000 housing units in the first phase under the scheme. The second phase involves construction of 30,000 more d welling units for which Rs. 105 crores will be sanctioned. A survey conducted by the district panchayat had earlier revealed that there were one lakh houseless people in the district under BPL. The beneficiaries are selected by the grama sabha and authen ticated by the grama panchayat.

The HUDCO loan per unit is Rs. 35,000 and the cost per unit is Rs. 45,100. The loan has been structured in such a manner that repayment of principal is taken care of by depositing Rs. 10,000 per beneficiary as a HUDCO fixed deposit, which will mature wit hin a period of 11 years. The district panchayat will pay the interest from own funds. Beneficiary contribution will come in the form of labour and materials.

Hudco is also financing a similar initiative of the Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat for construction of units for a loan amount of Rs. 89 crores to be made available through Kerala State Cooperative Bank Ltd. Requests from other district panchayats involving total assistance of Rs. 500 crores have also been received.

KSRTC fleet augmentation scheme: An amount of Rs. 100 crores has been sanctioned to the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) for purchase of 1,200 buses and for strengthening other infrastructure facilities. This is expected to lead to improve ment in the transport infrastructure and revenue collection. The repayment will be effected through an escrow mechanism which will ensure that a deposit of Rs. 1,000 is made into a separate account in respect of each bus on a daily basis over a period of three years.

HUDCO has agreed in principle to finance five major schemes of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) being implemented at the pilgrim centres of Sabarimalai (Rs. 47 crores) and Guruvayur (Rs. 6.21 crores), Thiruvananthapuram city (Rs. 48.66 crores), Thalasser y (Rs. 28.96 crores) and Kozhikode (Rs. 6.5 crores). Three other major projects being taken up by HUDCO are six-laning of the road from Ernakulam to Nedumbassery along a new alignment (Rs. 100 crores) and a flyover at the Vyttila junction (Rs. 10 crores) in Ernakulam and a Rs. 200-crore, integrated infrastructure development of the island resort of Kumarakom in Kottayam district.