NEW DELHI: After years of delay, the defence ministry is pushing for housing project of military personnel with spending over Rs. 24, 000 crore.
Married Accommodation Project (MAP), which was announced after Kargil war, the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had, in his Independence Day speech in 2001 had announced “100 per cent housing” for armed forces personnel.
Subsequently, a joint study was subsequently carried out by the three services and the project kick started in May 2002 with the establishment of the Directorate of Married Accommodation Project (MAP). But till date, the MAP project has been mired with corruption allegations led to repeated delays of meeting extending deadlines.
On Wednesday, Major General Sanjeev Jain, Director General, Directorate General of Married Accommodation Project (DGMAP), Military Engineering Service (MES) maintained that the defence ministry has allocated Rs 24,000 crore for housing projects for three services personnel and other military infrastructures and 80 percent of this would be spend in making houses with the use of new construction technologies such as pre cast and pre engineered structures.
Speaking on the sidelines of a event, Jain said, “Under married accommodation project (MAP), 80,000 units would be constructed at 150 military stations across the country and with economy of scale these technologies would be major cost saving exercise along with quality housing for Defence personnel,” he added.
He said that for permanent structures such as housing units, new technologies bring in quality and saves time and money.
Adding to this he said that if three stations are in a 50 to 100 km radius, then we can have a mega pre engineered material building unit to cater the need.
According to an estimated figure, armed forced have shortage of accommodation of 40-45 per cent for officers and in more than 55 per cent in case of non commissioned officers and other ranks including jawans.
Perturbed with repeated delays, the ministry in 2013 had cancelled 14 contracts awarded to private builders for “delay” and “non-performance” and had accused the project Directorate of “abdicating” its responsibilities and “allowing private players to benefit”