Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Economic survey presents rosy picture on housing

MUMBAI: Affordable housing continues to remain a distant dream. Various government agencies entrusted with the job of creating affordable homes continue to construct tenements at a dismally slow pace. However, the Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2009-10, which was tabled in the legislature on Tuesday, claims that housing conditions both in rural and urban areas have improved considerably.

In Mumbai, the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (Mhada) constructed a mere 1,239 tenements last year. Since its inception in 1977, it has constructed around 2.05 lakh tenements in the state capital and another 1.7 lakh tenements in the rest of the state, according to the economic survey.

The picture is equally dismal for the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme. Since its inception in 1995, it has completed 582 proposals and rehabilitated only 1.11 lakh families as against a promised two lakh homes in five years for 40 lakh people. The Shiv Shahi Punarvasan Prakalp Limited, which replaced the SRA scheme in 1998 to accelerate slum rehabilitation, has so far constructed 7,649 tenements at a cost of Rs 402 crore. 

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