Govt buys pvt lands worth 600 cr for housing schemes

Narsapur: Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana has said the state government purchased private lands worth Rs 600 crore for taking up housing schemes.

Accompanied by MLA B Madhava Naidu and officials, he inspected lands necessary for construction of houses for the poor at Likhitapudi and Lakshmaneswaram panchayats in the mandal on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister informed that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, had made budgetary allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for purchase of private lands. There were no appropriate government lands for construction of houses for the poor.

This was the reason for the government searching for private lands to reach targets under various housing schemes. The CM was keen on quality in construction and there was no dearth of funds for the housing schemes. A total of 5.28 lakh houses under 110 municipalities were sanctioned.

For those who possess land and intended to construct houses, the government sanctioned two lakh houses in municipal area and 2.5 lakh housing units in urban areas. Out of the total houses sanctioned, slabs were completed for one lakh houses.

Another 50,000 houses were under final phase of construction. It was targeted to complete one lakh housing units by this month-end. At present, slabs for 30 to 35 houses were completed every month.

From now onwards, the target would be 50,000 housing units every month, he added.