Gujarat to build 40,000 affordable houses every year

Ahmedabad, August 1: The Gujarat Housing Board (GHB) today announced that it will build affordable houses every year for low and medium income groups.

"To provide affordable housing to the poor, low and medium income group people, Gujarat Housing Board has started building houses and our goal is to build 25,000 to 40,000 houses every year," GHB Chairman Jayanti Barot told reporters here today.

Currently, GHB has started constructing 2,132 flats in Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara which are likely to be completed in one-and-a-half year, Barot said. GHB is building flats in 13-storey complex for low income groups (LIG) and medium income groups (MIG) at Munjka in Rajkot, Tarsali in Vadodara and Ganeshpura in Surat.

The flats will be allotted at the cost ranging from Rs 9 lakhs to 19.75 lakhs with the construction area ranging from 681 sq ft to 971 sq ft.

Gujarat Housing Board was almost defunct for past 14 years but last year before Assembly Elections, when Congress party announced that it would provide affordable houses to every households in these groups in the state as poll promise, the state government had revived GHB and announced its intentions to build houses.

Giving more details on the proposed houses, Barot said as GHB is driven by the 'no profit, no loss' philosophy, all flats will be allotted at the actual cost. Distribution of application forms for GHB houses has started from today and applicants can also file it online, he said.

During the coming months, GHB has planned to build houses in Ahmedabad, Sanand, Mahemdavad, Bharuch, Valsad, Jamnagar and Bhuj on the land which is already in its possession.

"Gujarat Housing Board has total 600 acres of land in its possession and till now it has provided 1,76,000 affordable houses to the people of Gujarat and as the government has allotted fund of Rs 85 crore we have decided to give our contribution in furthering Chief Minister's Housing Scheme so that every family can own its own home," Barot said.

PTI