Chief Secretary for added focus on meeting housing requirements of urban populace

JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, on Thursday impressed upon the Housing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD) to lay added focus on providing affordable housing facilities to the urban population of J&K.

Dulloo made these remarks while speaking in a meeting held to review progress on flagship housing schemes being implemented by the department.

Among others, the meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary H&UDD, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir/Jammu, MD Housing Board and CTPs.

During the meeting, the Chief Secretary maintained that since the population of urban areas is increasing fast, there is significant rise in demand for housing in cities. He stated that it is imperative on part of the department to come up with comprehensive plans to meet the needs of public especially the urban poor.

Dulloo said that the unplanned construction of houses in cities is putting lot of pressure on the already shrinking land resources. In view of it, the department has the added responsibility of providing affordable and planned housing provisions to people in urban areas.

The Chief Secretary also took stock of ongoing projects of housing colonies being raised by the Board in different parts of the UT. He called for expediting work on these projects besides planning for raising more flatted accommodations for the city dwellers and other categories of population coming to cities to study or earn their livelihood.

During the meeting, Commissioner Secretary H&UDD, Mandeep Kaur, informed the meeting about all the schemes and projects currently under implementation in the UT.

She added that the department is developing its housing units with full adherence to building bye-laws promoting organized living, efficient use of space and clutter-free environment thereby enhancing the quality of life for its residents.

MD Housing Board, Ashish Gupta, presented an overview of the housing colonies being developed by the department during previous years and those coming up in different districts of J&K. He gave details of physical and financial progress of each such housing project besides throwing light on the plans of the department to further meet the needs of exponentially growing population in the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar.

Overall pace and progress of housing colonies currently being raised under UT CAPEX and those for EWS population, flatted accommodations and development of different land parcels under PPP mode were also part of discussions in the meeting.