Construction of 50,000 dwelling units per year for slum dwellers

About 50,000 dwelling units of 230-250 sq ft of built up area for slum dwellers are to be constructed over a period of time. No dwelling unit should be given free of cost otherwise more people will rush to Kerala from all over as they will think that even free housing amenities are being offered in the state.

Actually this is a very wrong concept. Here also heavy cross subsidization can be allowed up to 75 percent of the total cost to popularize this concept. The infrastructure cost may not be as high as in the integrated new projects but it will take up about 50 to 60 percent of the new infrastructure costs, which should be included in the cost of construction. Here also the land cost will be nil, being partly government land, while for private land, the cost of prevailing market rate should be paid to the actual owners of the property.

Housing for the urban poor has been a ticklish for successive governments in the state. Building apartments in Kerala was the sole prerogative of the private sector till recent times. But due to the declining availability of land, even the state government is now forcing the Kerala State Housing Board (KSHB) to build high-rise residential apartments.

Urban planners in Kerala are extremely careful not to allow a repetition of the situation that has overwhelmed the cities of Mumbai and Delhi, where the problem of housing for the urban poor has continuously become a nightmare for successive governments since the last few decades. While the private sector has been concentrating on constructing high quality high value apartment units mainly to cater to the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and other high-income groups, actually the high-rise apartment culture helped to mitigate the housing needs of a vast section of the population. The pressure on land also got decreased as a result of this building boom.