CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday sanctioned an additional Rs 400 crore to the Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam Scheme (KKI) in addition to the already sanctioned Rs 1,051 crore to expedite the construction work. The government had sanctioned Rs 1,051 crore for building one lakh concrete houses during the current financial year.
An official release on Wednesday said that with the additional allocation, the government is taking steps to complete the construction of all one lakh houses within the current financial year. Administrative sanction has been granted for allocating Rs 3,500 crore for building one lakh concrete houses under the scheme and Rs 3.50 lakh has been sanctioned for each house. A survey under the head ‘House for All in Tamil Nadu’ revealed that there are eight lakh huts in rural areas and to achieve the objective of ‘hut-free Tamil Nadu’, an announcement was made for constructing eight lakh houses by 2030.
For the current financial year, permission was granted to build one lakh houses and works are going on. Each house is built on an area of 360 sqft. To lessen the financial burden on the beneficiaries of the scheme, the government is procuring cement through TANCEM and iron rods at a cheaper price and giving them to the beneficiaries. Depending on the stages of construction, the unit cost for each house is disbursed to the beneficiaries directly to their Single Nodal Account. So far, the Tamil Nadu government has allocated Rs 1,051.34 crore.