The Andhra Pradesh State Housing Department has achieved the target of completing the construction of five lakhs houses by the end of August under the flagship ‘Navaratnaalu - Pedalandariki Illu’ scheme.
A total of 5,00,653 houses had been constructed at more than 4,500 Jagananna colonies across the State, G. Lakshmisha, Managing Director of the A.P. State Housing Corporation Ltd., told The Hindu on August 30 (Wednesday).
Infrastructure
“Social infrastructure works such as supply of drinking water, laying of internal roads, digging of soak pits, and power supply have also been completed,” Mr. Lakshmisha said.
He said that land was available for the construction of village secretariats, anganwadi buildings, primary schools, primary health centres, parks, market places and others. “The government will construct buildings for these facilities based on requirement and once the beneficiaries occupy the houses,” he said.
“A massive house-warming ceremony will be performed probably in the second week of September,” he added.
He said that all the five lakh beneficiaries would participate in the ceremony in the presence of their family members and public representatives on an auspicious occasion throughout the State.
“Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will attend one such ceremony and hand over the keys to the beneficiaries, while the public representatives and officials will participate in similar events in their respectiove districts,” he added.
Mr. Lakshmisha said that ₹15,000 crore had been spent on the construction of these houses in the first phase. “While ₹9,000 crore has been spent on construction of houses alone, an amount of ₹1,000 crore has been utilised for providing power, water, internal roads, arches and soak pits and another ₹4,000 crore to ₹5,000 crore on land acquisition,” he said.
Second phase
“The department plans to complete another five lakh houses by the end of December 2023, and most of these units are nearing completion,” Mr. Lakshmisha said.
Meanwhile, Ajay Jain, Special Chief Secretary, Housing Department, has appointed special officers and instructed them to visit the layouts regularly and inspect the colonies to take steps for completion of the houses.
