The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) on Thursday published a tender for proposals from private real estate players to develop 1,300 affordable housing units in the heart of the city in Satya Nagar under the Smart District area.
Shanti Nagar Awas Yojana, as it will be named, would be developed over a land of 10 acres. The selected private developer would develop the houses for economically weaker sections (EWS) in a land of 6.5 acres and would get 3.5 acres to develop it according to its own plan so that he/she can sell them for high-end residential and commercial complexes and recover the project cost.
Shanti Nagar Awas Yojana will be part of the Housing For All Policy-2015 of the State Government, which aims at providing affordable housing for all the urban poor and to make the cities free from slums. It also recognises the importance of private players to accomplish the milestone and provides incentives and facilities for the private sector in diverse areas like affordable housing, slum rehabilitation and rental housing etc.
The Housing For All Policy-2015 of the State Government has seven different models to be followed and the Shanti Nagar Awas Yojana will be as per the Model No. IV of the HFA Policy-2015.
The new project, located in the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District or the Smart District, is envisioned under the Smart City proposal. The proposed location is around 3.2 km from the city railway station, 6.5 km from the Biju Patnaik International Airport and has a tremendous potential for real-estate development.
While the broad role of the development authority is to provide unencumbered land, facilitate and ensure time bound statutory approvals, the real-estate developer shall develop 1,300 EWS houses over the 6.5 acres land and hand it over to BDA within 24 months of the commencement of the work. The BDA shall transfer the 3.5 acres of the rest of land on freehold basis for the private developer’s own commercial exploitation.
The proposal also ensures contiguous land, fast-track approval process, higher permissible floor area ratio (FAR), exemption from various fees and charges as per the HFA Policy-2015 and last but not the least, facilitation by the development authority.
The rider in the proposal is that the individual firm or consortium, willing to apply must have a net worth of at least Rs 50 crore only, as on the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016.
While the slum rehabilitation project (SRP) in the 6.5 acre land will ensure provision of social infrastructure like neighbouring shopping and community facilities, there will be provision for internal roads, sewerage treatment plan and adequate drainage system.
The good point in the proposal over the overall maintenance of the 1,300 houses and their infrastructure is that, the developer will develop a common fund by donating 2 per cent of the total cost of the SRP; hence the maintenance would be a smoother process in future.
It can me mentioned here that while the BDA has already fixed a target of 10,000 EWS houses by the month of April, 2017, under the HFA Policy, 2015, this year, through various projects so far, a plan has been made to develop over 7,000 EWS units alone in the city. With the addition of Shanti Nagar Awas Yojana to the list, this will jump to more than 8,300.
In yet another development, stakeholders called for a need to immediately close the drain along the boundary wall and curb anti-social activity in and around the Robot Park in Saheed Nagar. They also pointed at proper signage/map, water fountain on the temple side of the park. They also requested the authorities to ensure universal access and provision for tri-cycle tracks and day-care centre.
It was suggested that as all four parks in Saheed Nagar would be now linked so that the kids and elderly can walk down to them and there should be no high speed motorists affecting the child-friendly environment. It was decided that the park corridor would be having a planned non-motorised transport (NMT) region to encourage people use their foot and cycles, instead.