State government gives nod to construction of 5,600 flats for EWS.

Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain announced recently  that the Delhi government has approved a proposal to construct around 5,600 flats for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) at four separate locations in the Capital.

The Minister said that professional agencies had also been engaged for the maintenance of public toilets in slum clusters.

The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), Mr. Jain said, had approved the construction of 5,594 flats for the EWS in Bhalswa, Sangam Park, Lajpat Nagar and Karol Bagh’s Dev Nagar.

The flats will be built under the ambitious Delhi government policy aimed at the in-situ rehabilitation of slum residents. The decision was taken at DUSIB’s board meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“Delhi government will provide interest-free loan for construction of these flats and this will be in-situ rehabilitation project in accordance with the government policy of ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan’,” the Delhi government said in a statement.

After the meeting, Mr. Jain told the media that all the 5,594 flats would have monolithic walls. While 3,780 flats will be constructed in Bhalswa-Jahangirpuri, 582 will come up in Sangam Park, he said, adding that Lajpat Nagar and Dev Nagar will have 448 flats and 784 flats respectively.

The project is expected to be executed at a cost of around ₹737.26 crore. Mr. Jain also said that the Board had approved the laying of roads, the setting up of street lights and parks in slum areas across the Capital.

“After receiving the necessary approvals, the Board has decided to provide more budget for the upgradation of concrete roads, drains, maintenance and upgradation of parks and street lights in all the Jhuggi Jhopri [JJ] bastis of Delhi, for which the Delhi government will provide ₹100 crore as financial support,” the statement said, adding that in Delhi there were 755 bastis, where the DUSIB would carry out such work after reviewing existing conditions.

The statement also said that in light of a DUSIB survey of JJ bastis in April 2016 that identified 1,108 ‘dark spots’, which require augmentation of street lighting, the DUSIB Board decided that the existing street light facility in JJ bastis as well as its further augmentation in respect of illuminating ‘dark spots’ would be carried out by respective DISCOMS.

Requisite charges for this, the statement added, would be paid by DUSIB from the funds to be released by the Delhi government for this purpose.

THE HINDU