Odisha CM To Inaugurate 2 Housing Projects For Urban Poor In Bhubaneswar Tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is set to inaugurate over 1,700 housing units for the urban poor in two projects in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to inaugurate the housing projects, developed by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) in public private partnership (PPP).

The projects have social infrastructure facilities such as neighbourhood shopping centres and community gathering space. More than 7,000 housing units for the urban poor are in different stages of construction in the state capital, TOI reported.

Under the 2015 policy for housing for all in urban areas, the state government has seven different models to create affordable housing units, including by offering incentives to private developers.

One of the projects to be inaugurated is called Buddha Vihar. It has come up on a hill top next to the Buddha Jayanti Park in Chandrasekharpur. The other is in posh Satya Nagar locality.

Buddha Vihar is a green field affordable housing project spread over 20.21 acre. It will have a total 2,600 housing units for the economically weaker sections (EWS). In Phase-I of the project, 820 dwelling units besides a multi-amenity centre and related infrastructure has been completed by the private partner and handed over to BDA for allotment.

BDA vice-chairman Balwant Singh was quoted by TOI as saying that urban poor affected by various development projects in the smart city are being accommodated in the project. While the EWS dwelling units have come up on 11.95 acre, a private developer partnered for the project will get 6.5 acre for developing houses as per the market rate.