Patna hosts workshop on Cost effective construction technologies

Patna, Dec 27 (UNI) Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation S K Singh today said that more than 24 million people, living in the urban areas, were facing shortage of houses and their number fast growing.

Speaking at an International workshop on 'Innovation in cost effective construction technologies', which was inaugrated today by him, Mr Singh said that providing shelter to the urban population posed a phenomenal challenge, and the need of the time was to develop eco-friendly habitat, promote low cost building and energy saving technologies.

The Centre had recently announced the National Urban Housing and Habitat policy, which aims at providing 'affordable housing for all', with emphasis on extending benefits to the poor and the deprived sections of the society. The ultimate goal of the policy was to ensure that the basic need - 'shelter to all' was fulfilled.

The workshop was also attended by Deepak Ballani, project coordinator, UNIDO, JK Prasad, Executive Director, BMPTC and Arun Kumar, Regional Chief, HUDCO.

UNI