JOIN USHousing Minister M H Ambarish on Wednesday said that the government is upgrading 26 slums in the State at a cost of Rs 1,347 crore under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). The projects are likely to commence in May.
Speaking to reporters, he said that the Housing department had already finalised the tenders for two of the 26 projects and another 20 will be finalised by the end of May. The two projects for which tenders have been finalised are for Bangalore and Tumkur slums.
The Housing minister said that the projects will be completed in the next 10 to 12 months. Ambarish said the government is looking at 16,425 houses to be constructed under the scheme of slum re-development in this phase for the two cities. In the second phase, a total of Rs 777 crore will be spent to construct 26,845 houses elsewhere in the State.
Ambarish said that the department has a target of providing 3.7 lakh houses by the end of this financial year. He said that 2.5 lakh applications have been received by the department, and it is scrutinising the applications for the houses. He said that there are 13 lakh families which do not have proper housing in the State.
Housing project
Meanwhile, under the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB), the Suryanagar 4th Stage project in Anekal (Bangalore Urban district) is in its final stages. The Housing minister said that close to 2,200 acres of land for the extension of Suryanagar is under final notification.
In Mysore, three new housing projects under KHB at Kenchalgudu have been proposed.
It is said that the department has already commenced acquisition of 900 to 1,000 acres per project. The compensation for the land acquisition for these projects will be Rs 38 lakh per acre.