Gujarat to build 40,000 affordable houses yearly

For low and medium income groups, the Gujarat Housing Board (GHB) will build affordable houses every year. To provide affordable housing to the poor, low and medium income group people, Gujarat Housing Board has started building houses and the government's goal is to build 25,000 to 40,000 houses every year, GHB Chairman Jayanti Barot said on August 1. Currently, GHB has started constructing 2,132 flats in Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara which are likely to be completed in one-and-a-half year, Barot said.

GHB is building flats in 13-storey complex for low income groups (LIG) and medium income groups (MIG) at Munjka in Rajkot, Tarsali in Vadodara and Ganeshpura in Surat. The flats will be allotted at the cost ranging from Rs 9 lakh to 19.75 lakh with the construction area ranging from 681 sq ft to 971 sq ft. Gujarat Housing Board was almost defunct for past 14 years but last year before Assembly Elections, when Congress party announced that it would provide affordable houses to every households in these groups in the state as poll promise, the state government had revived GHB and announced its intentions to build houses.

Barot said as GHB is driven by the 'no profit, no loss' philosophy, all flats will be allotted at the actual cost. Distribution of application forms for GHB houses has started from August 1 and applicants can also file it online, he said. During the coming months, GHB has planned to build houses in Ahmedabad, Sanand, Mahemdavad, Bharuch, Valsad, Jamnagar and Bhuj on the land which is already in its possession.

Gujarat Housing Board has total 600 acres of land in its possession and till now it has provided 1,76,000 affordable houses.