Jharkhand State Housing Board which more often than not has been in news for wrong reasons appears to be itching for image makeover as suggested by several big ticket projects along with some socially significant plans that are in the offing. The objective as it echoes in the corridor of the board points at making best use of land under its control contrary to controversial allocation of land that earned bad reputation for the board.
The board is likely to pass a number of proposals in its next meeting whereas around half-a-dozen multi-crore proposals are in pipeline. The upcoming projects were reviewed by Minister Housing, CP Singh on Wednesday with the officials of the Housing Board. “Our primary objective is to rectify faults and also to save lands under the control of the board from getting encroached,” said Singh.
The board’s recipe for preventing encroachment includes construction of a shopping mall-cum- residential and marketing complex of international standard on 7-acres of vacant land between Harmu Chowk and Sahjanand Chowk with an estimated cost of Rs 100-crore. The project is likely to be prepared in next three to four months. The board’s proposal for property development also includes developing marketing complex, houses for people belonging to different economic brackets at Aargora, Harmu and Bariatu. The ambitious project for the three localities is likely to cost around Rs 150-crore.
For the safety concern of working women and meet their requirements of accommodation the board will develop hostels besides, a marketing complex at Harmu on plot number-15. While the women hostel will cost over Rs 19-core the marketing complex on the designated plot will cost more than Rs 13-core and detailed project report of the two projects will be complete in one month. Among the proposals reviewed by the Minister and likely to be passed in the board’s next meeting includes construction of three G+3 residential complexes and maintenance of the board’s offices. Nonetheless, lands for the big ticket projects are yet to be indentified and officials of the board could not be contacted despite repeated attempts made.