Houses for Urban Poor hang fire

BHUBANESWAR: It will take two more years to give facelift to three slums in the city. The work being undertaken under Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP), a component of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal  Mission (JNNURM), was launched in 2009 targeting slums at  Nayapalli Sabarsahi, Bharatpur Vikash Nagar and Dumduma. Under the project, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is supposed to facilitate construction of concrete dwelling units besides infrastructure like community halls, water pipelines, community toilets, sewerage, roads, streetlights and plantation.Even as the project was to end by this month, only about 60 to 65 per cent of the total work has been completed. Under BSUP, the Centre provides assistance to the tune of ` 1.7 lakh for construction of each dwelling unit and an occupant has to bear 10 per cent of total cost. As per reports, 12 clusters in Bharatpur, five in  Dumduma and one in Nayapalli Sabarsahi having 1,135, 754 and 73 housing units respectively would be developed under BSUP. Till February-end, 578 dwelling units  were completed in Bharatpur, 270 in Dumduma and 35 in Nayapalli Sabarsahi. Infrastructure-wise too, while around 60 per cent work on drains, roads and community toilets have been completed in Dumduma and Bharatpur, no work has started in Nayapalli Sabarsahi in the absence of land. Sources attributed the delay to lack of monitoring of the project, no coordination among departments and delay in finalisation of tendering process. “Of all the three slums, Nayapalli Sabarsahi has been the most difficult one. There is no land here which is the major reason behind the delay. After several rounds of discussions, the slum-dwellers have agreed upon vertical construction of dwelling units. At present, the housing works are on after completion of which infrastructure works would begin. In the other two slums, works have been more or less satisfactory,” said Municipal  Commissioner Vishal Dev.  The Commissioner added that since the Cabinet Committee on  Infrastructure had approved for two-year extension to projects under JNNURM, the Corporation is hopeful of completion of the BSUP project by 2014. Home to over three lakh, the 377 slums in the city have long been crying for attention, primarily the basic amenities. The steadily increasing number of slums and its dwellers has been putting tremendous pressure on the urban basic services and infrastructure.