Gujarat floats Rs 700 crore slum redevelopment fund

The Gujarat Government has floated a Slum Redevelopment Premium Fund (SRPF) with an initial corpus of Rs 700 crore. This fund from the Central and state government's grants will be exclusively for funding affordable housing projects across the state.   Further, the state government is reported to have instructed all the municipal corporations and municipalities to create their own corpus, which will be linked to the SRPF. The municipal corporations have also been given instructions to deposit the premiums collected from private developers for land and development rights in slum redevelopment.   To promote affordable housing in Gujarat, the SRPF will get Rs 1 lakh each from the Centre and state for every house. At present, the Central Government has sanctioned funds for 35,000 houses, which means that the SRPF will have around Rs 700 crore. Also, as per reports, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has collected Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore as premium for slum redevelopment fund, which will be used for projects with low viability. This system will be replicated by civic authorities of Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara, Ashwani Kumar, Secretary & Commissioner Of Urban Housing Department reportedly said, adding that it will also also give Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per house from the fund, especially in small towns, where slum redevelopment projects are not viable.    In addition to this fund assistance, Transfer of Development Rights and additional Floor Space Index (FSI) will also be given to those who take up slum development projects in small towns, as per reports. And, SRPF also has the flexibility to invest funds through Gujarat State Financial Services (GSFS) whenever required, which will help in faster allocation of funds for the affordable housing projects.