Government to build houses costing under Rs5 lakh

At a time when only 1 per cent of India's population can afford a house worth above Rs10 lakh, the government is not only committed to building smart cities but also to offer affordable houses below Rs5 lakh, union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

"Low cost housing is very important. The biggest impediment is that in our country there are only 1 per cent people who can buy houses above Rs10 lakh. If we make available houses at a cost below Rs5 lakh, 30 per cent of people can buy that," the road transport highways and shipping minister said at Assocham's 'Smart City' summit in New Delhi.

He said apart from focus on building smart cities, providing affordable houses to the poorest of the poor also tops the agenda of the Narendra Modi government. In one such venture, an experiment has been done in Nagpur to construct a house on steel structure using 70 per cent fly ash, which will be inaugurated on 20 February.

"The construction cost of the building comes at Rs1,000 a square feet. We will be able to provide 450 square feet house in Rs5 lakh. We are installing solar system in that besides furniture including beds made of fly ash. A subsidy of Rs 1.5 lakh would be given on it. The cost of the house will be Rs3.5 lakh and loan will be available at 7 to 7.5 per cent interest rate ... even a poor can buy that," the minister said.

The government will not only make smart cities but is also committed to developing the existing cities as per modern-day requirements. Ten out of 12 major ports will have smart cities. "Barring Kolkata and Mumbai, smart cities would be developed at our 10 ports," he said.

He also urged investors to come forward to set up smart cities under PPP (public-private partnership), with the government ready to offer land, besides clearances in a transparent manner.

India has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61% of the country's total cargo traffic.