CHENNAI: Moving forward in its plans to float a corpus fund to finance affordable housing for the poor, the Tamil Nadu government is considering building and reconstructing nearly 50,000 old and new tenements in Chennai. A high-level meeting of officials from Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation (TNIFMC), Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Board and State Housing Board chaired by chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan discussed the modalities of setting up and operating the fund, to be christened Amma Shelter Fund after J Jayalalithaa, here on Monday.
Official sources told Express that a total of 30,000 existing tenements would require reconstruction and about 15,000 to 17,000 new tenements need to be built to fulfil the housing needs of the poor in Chennai. The social venture fund was mooted by the TNIFMC to be taken up under the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) Regulations of the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
All projects taken up under the fund would have to be executed through a non-profit organisation or a society wherein the land would be owned by the entity. To keep the cost low, the cost of land for undivided share (UDS) would not be passed on to them. TNHB would serve as the sponsor for Amma Shelter Fund. The focus of the State would be to provide housing in three categories: housing for economically-weaker sections at a cost of `9 lakh and below and at `12 lakh for low income group.
The fund would help create houses for the riverside slum dwellers, who are likely to be evicted soon. Similarly, the fund would be utilised to reconstruct slum clearance board’s tenements using Central Government funds. As per the norms for riverside slum, 10 per cent of the housing cost is borne by the beneficiaries, while the rest is provided by the State Government. It was suggested during the meeting that the TNIFMC study the possibility of floating infrastructure bonds to finance State government’s share of 90 per cent since affordable housing is now treated as infrastructure activity.