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Lack of affordable housing in Chandigarh a major concern: UNDP report
Even though the Chandigarh administration had last month received an award for being the ‘best-performing state/UT’ in implementation of the affordable rental housing scheme, the recently released report states that there is a steep population rise for which the city is not equipped
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its vision document ‘Chandigarh 2030 and Beyond’ has mentioned that affordable housing had always remained a concern in the city.
Even though the Chandigarh administration had last month received an award for being the ‘best-performing state/UT’ in implementation of the affordable rental housing scheme, the recently released report states that there is a steep population rise for which the city is not equipped.
There is a gap between demand and supply of affordable housing across Chandigarh and its neighbouring regions. Chandigarh as a city has been dealing with a steady influx of population over the years, leading to the accelerated demand for affordable housing, the report says.
The rural-urban divide is widening, further adding to the disparity in living conditions of marginalised sections, it adds.
‘Streamline peripheral area development’
The peripheral area development, the UNDP document says, needs to be streamlined as there is a presence of urban villages and unauthorised settlements with unregulated growth in and around planned sectors.
The city needs to focus on such settlements as a part of its urban development plans while ensuring housing for all and maintaining a low to medium housing-density population.
Kamaljit Singh Panchhi, president of Property Federation, Chandigarh, said lack of affordable housing options in the city has forced people to head to Mohali and Panchkula.
“Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB), a government body that was set up with an idea to provide reasonably priced decent houses for the middle and lower-middle class, has made itself a money minting machine. It acts as a real-estate agent and the price of CHB houses are at all-time high, which is beyond the reach of the common man,” he added.
CHB: Work on to build affordable housing units in Sector 53
CHB chief executive officer Yashpal Garg, meanwhile, said, “We have around 11 acres of land in Sector 53 where we are building affordable housing units. We have requested the UT administration to also allow us to construct high-rise buildings so that the cost of flats can come down. As of now, we are providing people with an affordable rental housing scheme and offering flats which had been lying vacant. Out of 2,195 such flats, 1,997 have been allotted to families.”
The board has constructed 67,565 units till date, including residential and commercial ones. Out of these, 33,867 units have been built for economically weaker sections (EWS). These include small flats constructed for dwellers rehabilitated under the slum rehabilitation scheme in Sector 38 (West), Sector 49, Dhanas, Maloya, Mauli Jagran and Ram Darbar, among others, and constitute over 50% of the total flats built by the board. CHB has built only 11,723 houses for the middle-income group, accounting for 17% of the total construction.
PMAY scheme scrapped in city
In March 2017, the UT administration had launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Housing for All (Urban) scheme. A year later, the ministry of home affairs refused UT administration to allow the selling of the land at the rate lower than on which it was acquired, forcing it to scrap the scheme in 2020. CHB, which was the nodal agency for the scheme, had finalised around 8,000 beneficiaries. Even land measuring up to 98 acres was also identified to build flats at Maloya, Dhanas and Mauli Jagran.
Box: 25% population lives in CHB houses
Till date, the Chandigarh Housing Board has built 67,565 houses of various categories. It has been estimated that about 25% of the Chandigarh population resides in these houses.
