To build houses for poor the Rajasthan government will take Rs 200 crore loan from centre

After the allottees of chief minister Jan Awas Yojana and affordable housing scheme failed to deposit instalments during the pandemic, the state government plans to complete the construction work after taking loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO).

The urban housing department had earlier proposed to construct nearly 23,000 houses for economically weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) across the state under public-private and partnership (PPP) model. However, the construction work was stalled after only 10-15% allottees managed to deposit the instalments.

An official said, “The department will take loan of Rs 200 crore to complete these projects. While Rs 160 crore will be spent to construct the pending 19,244 houses under Jan Awas Yojana, Rs 40 crore will be spent for constructing 4,112 affordable houses”.

Earlier, to achieve the target of the ambitious scheme, the state government had provided major relaxations to developers in the state.

The government had relaxed the conversion of land policy for developers constructing houses for economic weaker section (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) under the Mukhyamantri Jan Awas Yojana. However, nothing can give the project a momentum during the pandemic.

An official source said, “Private parties developing residential projects on their own land have to reserve 10% of the saleable area in proposed colonies and 7.5% floor area ratio in apartments for EWS and LIG categories. However, if the plotted development is less than 2 hectares and less than 5,000sq m (flat development), the developers have the option of paying charges”.

For plotted development, developers can deposit 10% cost of the saleable area land. This cost is levied as per the reserve price or district lease committee (DLC) rates. Similarly, the department charges Rs 100 per sq. ft. for 7.5% of the floor area ratio (FAR) for flat development.