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2BR houses sans flooring, plastering & shelves to cut costs
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s flagship programme of constructing double bed room houses for the poor, which is already marred by residents’ opposition, has hit by another lacuna.
Warangal: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s flagship programme of constructing double bed room houses for the poor, which is already marred by residents’ opposition, has hit by another lacuna.
Those occupying the houses have to shell out extra money as Roads and Buildings (R&B) department, which is looking after construction of the houses, has decided to remove some “item of works” which includes flooring to reduce government’s expenditure.
KCR during his visit to Warangal in January 2015 performed ‘bhoomi puja’ for over 3,900 houses proposing to construct ‘ground plus one’ structures in nine slums.
Later, the plan changed to construct ground plus two and ground plus three houses. However, the residents who owned the lands opposed the ground plus structures and wanted independent houses. They started the protests during the CM’s three-day visit itself and the protests are still continuing.
Added to this, those consented for double bed room houses are now worried over removal of the item of works.
The slum-dwellers who occupy the houses may have to put up with absence of kitchen door, flooring and others.
The district administration has consented to modify and remove some items listed in the agreements made with the contractors for the construction of houses. According to officials, each house with a carpet area of 900 square yards was planned to be constructed at a cost of Rs 5.04 lakh.
But the contractors who obtained tenders said to have expressed their inability with R&B officials to execute the works with such low-cost component, following which the authorities have decided to remove some items to cut the costs.
According to R&B officials, the items removed are granolithic flooring in 1, 2 and 3 floors, ceiling plastering, doors in the kitchen and children’s bed room, lofts in the flats, terrace top water tank and there would be a single layer plastering on walls.
Speaking to The Hans India, R&B superintendent engineer D Narsimha said the decision to remove items has been taken following discussions with contractors and the district collector.
However, the efforts are being made to explore if there are any chances to cover the items left out by adjusting the tenders. “A report in this regard is ready just in case the government asks for the report,” he said.
In all 1,384 flats are planned at SR Nagar (792 flats) and Ambedkar Nagar (892 flats) for which the government sanctioned Rs 69.75 crore. The works are taken up last December and planned to be completed within 15 months, he said.
Responding to the issue, City Congress president Rajanala Srihari expressed serious objection. “It indicates the government’s haphazard approach towards construction of double bed room houses” he said.
By: James Edwin
