Punjab cabinet invites applications for allotment of 25,000 EWS houses to be constructed

In order to provide constructed houses to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) of the society across the state, the Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved invitation of applications for allotment of 25,000 EWS houses to be constructed by various Urban Development Authorities.

According to an official statement issued by Chief Minister's Office, the applications for these houses along with necessary documents would be invited from the eligible applicants as per approved policy and the dwelling units would have a carpet area of approximately 30 square metres.

This pro-poor scheme would be instrumental in benefitting nearly 25000 EWS families of the state, who do not own a dwelling unit will get ownership of the same for a healthy and safer lifestyle, the CMO said.

A decision to this effect was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi here at Punjab Bhawan this evening.

"At present, around 397.048-acre land is available for EWS housing in all the development authorities viz. GMADA (233.588 acre), GLADA (73.29 acre), PDA (16.52 acre), BDA (13.48 acre), JDA (11.25 acre) and ADA (48.92 acre)," it said.

The statement also said that a Public Sector Undertaking of the Government of India has been recently engaged through the open selection process as Project Management Consultants (PMC) for this project for an end to end execution of the project with basic steps including developing a web portal to invite applications, analysing market demand, preparation of DPR, monitoring of all construction activity, ensuring the quality of the same and keeping a strict vigil until handing it over to respective RWA.

"In every EWS pocket, 80 per cent of area will be for houses @ 85 units per acre, while 20 per cent area will be left for a school, dispensary, playground and community centre," it added.

Notably, the Punjab EWS Housing policy was approved by Cabinet on March 9, 2021, as such 25,000 EWS houses would be constructed by the Special Urban Planning and Development Authorities under the Umbrella of the Housing and Urban Development department.

With a view to give relief to developers and boost the Real Estate sector in the State, the Cabinet has decided to reduce 10 per cent simple interest as well as 3 per cent penal interest on outstanding dues of developers such as of EDC to 8.5 per cent compounded annually in Urban Development Authorities.

Besides, the Cabinet also decided to drop normal and penal rates of interest to 7.5 per cent compounded annually and 10 per cent compounded annually in future for new as well as ongoing projects.

Keeping in view the ensuing procurement season for the year 2022-23, beginning from April 1, 2022, the Cabinet has also approved the Punjab Food Grains Labour and Cartage Policy and the Punjab Food Grains Transportation Policy for the year 2022 for labour and cartage and transportation of food grains from mandis to its storage points respectively.

Under both the policies approved by the Cabinet, the labour and cartage work besides transportation of foodgrains would be allocated through a competitive and transparent online tender system, the statement added.

( With inputs from ANI )

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