Karnataka - Belgaum   

Nirmiti Kendra promoting cost-effective housing

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, DEC. 8. Though the use of low-cost building material and technology is yet to catch on, middle- and lower-income groups are likely to take advantage of them because of the increasing cost of construction using conventional material.

Even the national housing policy lays emphasis on promoting cost-effective housing technology and appropriate material along with organising programmes to update skills of artisans. The Union Government has set up a network of building centres called Nirmiti Kendras in all districts for training and upgrading skills of artisans, demonstrating the use of cost-effective and indigenous building material, and producing construction material from industrial and agricultural wastes.

Retail outlets

Retail outlets are also being set up to sell the material. Technology transfer and experimentation have been covered under the scheme. Vijay Patil, project director of Belgaum Nirmiti Kendra, says that the Government took cognisance of the growing need for cost-effective housing and this led to the establishment of the kendra in the Nineties. The kendras at district centres, with the Deputy Commissioner as chairman and the zilla panchayat Chief Executive Officer as executive chairman, are monitored by the Karnataka State Building Centre set up in Bangalore in 1991.

The Belgaum centre was set up in 1996 at Machhe, 10 km from the city on Khanapur Road. Cost-effective construction material is being manufactured at the kendra. Soil stabilised blocks and rammed earth construction are an alternative to bricks and mud walls. Boulder blocks (filter blocks), which are an alternative to the random rubble masonry prevalent in north Karnataka, and RCC door and window frames in place of wood are the other material being produced at the centre. This is to bring down the demand for wood.

Roofing material

In addition, different roofing material such as beams and cuduppah slabs, `L' panel units, and ferro-cement rafters are prepared at the kendra along with ferro-cement water tanks and other components used in rural and urban sanitation programmes.

Arches of different shapes in place of lintels, exposed brickwork using rattrap bond and Flemish bond for aesthetic appearance and economy are prepared at the kendra.

Designing

Mr. Patil says that while promoting these material, the kendra also lays stress on the efficient use of land and functional planning and designing of houses and buildings. Training programmes are organised for artisans and masons in the use of cost-effective material and technologies.

The kendra has taken up construction work under several Government-sponsored programmes, including construction of prototype houses under the Ashraya scheme.

But as far as Ashraya houses constructed at Rukmini Nagar on the outskirts of the city are concerned, there are several complaints of poor construction and several beneficiaries are reluctant to occupy the houses.

Thirty works have been allotted to the kendra under the MP's Local Area Development Scheme. They include construction of schools and community halls.

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Nirmiti Kendra promoting cost-effective housing

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