BHUBANESWAR: The Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department has approved construction of five transit housing facilities in the Capital for rehabilitating evicted slum dwellers.
With the civic authorities intensifying their offensive against illegal encroachments in the city, it has become increasingly important to find alternative accommodations for the evicted slum dwellers. The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) was supposed to undertake construction of 10,000 transit accommodations in the city.
Sources said the civic authorities were now looking at ways on rehabilitating the urban poor first before displacing them. About 3,000 transit accommodations were scheduled to be completed in the first phase. Out of the total units, tender for 1,600 housing units has already been floated. The Development Authority has been asked to complete the tender process for the rest 1,400 transit accommodation units soon. All the transit accommodations will be of three floors.
The transit accommodations will come up at five locations: On three acres at Subudhipur, five acres at Niladri Vihar, five acres at Pandara, two acres near BJB Nagar and 3.09 acres at Dumduma. For the Dumduma project, it was decided that the user agency will be changed from BMC to BDA.
Out of the total 1,600 tendered transit accommodations, 500 units will come up in Subudhipur, 600 units in Niladri Vihar and 500 units in Damana. Funds for the project will be utilised from the State Capital Region Development Fund of BDA initially.
In addition to that, left-over funding from the Basic Services for Urban Poor will be utilised for construction of 317 housing units. The displaced slum-dwellers of Tarini Basti and Arabinda Basti near Chandrasekharpur will be rehabilitated in these housing units. About 20 per cent of the project cost will be charged from each beneficiary. The BDA is also in the process of preparing a detailed project report for construction of more affordable housing units in the Capital.