DSIIDC to provide civic facilities in 171 unauthorised colonies

New Delhi, Jan 20 (UNI) The state-owned Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) said it has forayed into the domain of providing civic infrastructure in 171 unauthorised colonies in the city.

The organisation, which was primarily into building and maintaining industrial estates and selling liquor in the city, has now been tasked with building infrastructure, DSIIDC Managing Director Manoj Parida told UNI.

He added that the usual obstacles and clearances are not required by DSIIDC and this will ensure that the work is completed in a time bound manner. ''A lot of work of the Public Works Department has come to us,'' he said.

The work pertains to building roads, drains and other related infrastructure work.

''This is a new field of business for us and we have got 171 colonies where the work has either started or slated to start anytime now,'' the managing director said.

MCD and Irrigation and Flood Control are the other agencies in this work.

DSIIDC also plans to modernise the community work centers in resettlement colonies and the pilot project has begun in New Seemapuri and Jahangirpuri.

The corporation is also implementing the Rajiv Gandhi Housing and is building two lakh houses for the weaker sections of society Scheme.

''We expect to build 50 thousand of the houses by the end of this year as the pace of construction is quite good,'' Mr Parida said.

He said a committee, of which he is a part, has been constituted under the Chief Secretary with Principal Secretary PWD K S Mehra to decide the process of allotment and the beneficiaries.

The committee will submit its recommendations to the Cabinet which will finally take the decision.

Renovation of schools has been added to the work profile of the DSIIDC and around 200 schools have been earmarked for renovation and makeover.

These schools will have facilities at par with the best of public schools.

''Swimming pools, auditoriums, quake resistant classrooms and fire resistant furniture would be some of the features in some of these schools. While in some of the schools, renovation would be done, in others, we would demolish the old structures and build new ones,'' he said.

However, Mr Parida said the corporation has not lost focus from its principle activity of selling liquor as it has already initiated several steps to ramp up business.

These include modernising and renovating the shops, computerising them and better stock management.

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