Housing projects hit roadblock

-    Thousands of poor waiting for construction of houses
-     APTIDCO to finalise tenders next month

Vijayawada: More than five months passed since foundation stone was laid for the construction of houses in Vijayawada by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, but no there was no progress in the construction of new houses for the poor. 

The two leaders laid the foundation in August 2017 for the construction of houses under PMAY. On the other hand, the TDP government will complete four years at the helm this summer. But it failed to take up housing project to resolve housing problems in the city.   The Central government had sanctioned 28,152 houses to Vijayawada city under PMAY and housing as part of Housing for All (HFA) scheme. So far, the revenue department handed over land for the construction of 10,000 houses at Jakkampudi village.

The government is planning to construct G+7 buildings in three different categories. The State and Central governments will sanction subsidy of Rs 3 lakh to each beneficiary. 

The state government had handed over the responsibility of constructing the houses to Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APTIDCO). The department will monitor the works after finalising the tenders. The department had invited tenders and it will finalise very soon.  When contacted the chief engineer of APTIDCO M Srimannarayana said tenders will be finalised in the first week of February 2018 and efforts were on to start the construction works. He said shear wall technology will be used for speedy construction of the houses. He said there will be no bricks and modern machinery will be used for speedy construction of sidewalls and slabs of the G+7 buildings, he added.

Though the Central government sanctioned 28,152 housing units to Vijayawada, land is available for the construction of only 10,000 houses. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation in association with the revenue department is trying to get land in Vemavaram village which is adjacent to Jakkampudi village for construction of another 16,000 houses which were sanctioned by the Central government.

Md Ameen