New housing policy for affordable shelter to all by 2010

New Delhi, Apr 2 (UNI) India has formed a new Housing Policy to ensure affordable shelter to all by 2010, a top official said.

Mr Tariq Hameed Karra, Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Finance, Housing&Urban Development, who led a delegation at the fourth International Conference on Intelligent, Green and Energy Efficient Building in Beijing, said the strategy to achieve this was by creating favourable environment for larger participation of private, private-public and co-operative sectors in housing development.

The action plan also included creation of a new legal and regulatory regime for housing, redefine role of Housing Boards and Development Authorities, improve access to market credit and to innovate housing architecture and technology, a release here said.

The minister at the inaugural session of the Conference being jointly organised in Beijing by the Housing Ministry Government of China and Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), India said the task of developing the urban areas would never acquire its true meaning and significance if the concept of Green Buildings was not pursued significantly in the modern housing infrastructure development.

He added in tune with its policy of improving the urban amenities, the Indian government had established an Urban Renewal Mission titled JNNURM, and the J&K government was working on Green Building Guidelines and several other issues of construction industry reforms jointly with the CIDC.

State Government Commissioner of Jammu Municipality, Jeet Lal Gupta and Vice-Chairman of Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) Mohammad Aslam also attended the conference, the release added.

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