HYDERABAD: The Government has identified 45 sites in the city for construction of 15,000 houses on a ground plus two-floor basis for the poor living in slums under the Indiramma scheme aided by funding from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

It was, in fact, ready to take up building of more units as phase one, two and three of the scheme are to be developed in one go depending on the number of people coming forward. Details were being worked out and each unit will have 225 SFT space.

Minister for Information and Public Relations and district in-charge Mohd. Shabbir Ali told a press conference on Tuesday on completion of first phase of Praja Patham that the Centre and State have both joined hands to build houses at a cost of Rs. 1 lakh.

No easy task

The Governments will be actually spending Rs.2.5 lakh on each house, he pointed out, while admitting it was no easy task to convince slum dwellers on sharing land.

Under `Rajiv Gruhakalpa' where houses were constructed in Ranga Reddy district for the poor of the city, 7,000 applicants' documents were cleared of the 45,000 pending applications. Under this scheme the construction cost was just Rs. 50,000.

About 1,600 houses were being constructed at Bhojaguda and another 300 at Afzalsagar for rehabilitating those living near the storm water drains.

Loans

Special focus was also on formation of women self help groups and providing them with loans at 25 paise interest. SHGs formed after July 2005 alone were eligible for the scheme and 419 groups had benefited thus far with Rs. 35 lakh disbursed, the Minister said.

Majority of applications received in first phase pertained to sewer lines (297), water lines (139), streetlights (400) and roads (257) -- both cement and bitumen.

Pensions for destitute women too will be given along with those for widows and physically-challenged.

Collector R. Chandravadan and GHMC Special Commissioner Sanjay Jaju were present.

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