

BHUBANESWAR: The state government will not offer land but instead develop low-cost housing units and offer them to lower-income groups and households living in slums, clarified Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra on Thursday.
Speaking to mediapersons, the minister said that the government will not provide land through BDA or the Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB). “Rather we will develop low-cost housing projects, either on public-private partnership (PPP) mode or on our own and provide it to the people, especially those in the lower-income category and slums,” he added.
Mahapatra further informed that slum- dwellers will also be provided bank loan facility to enable them to go for low income group (LIG) or middle income group (MIG) houses. “The H&UD department has already started developing affordable houses and process for their allotment will be taken up after the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the same is finalised,” he said.
The state government has already announced plans to construct and provide houses in the price range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 50 lakh to the people, keeping in view the steep rise in real estate rates in Bhubaneswar.
Sources said the OSHB has also earmarked around 12.90 acre of land at Suango mouza for the affordable residential apartment project, which will be developed in PPP mode.