Chandigarh housing board to rent out 2,500 flats in Maloya to migrant labourers

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 18

The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has planned to rent out 2,500 vacant small flats in Maloya to migrant labourers and urban poor under the recently announced Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) scheme by the Government of India.

The CHB today gave a presentation on the scheme at a meeting chaired by UT Adviser Manoj Parida.

Parida said after detailed deliberations, it was decided that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) would be signed between the UT Administration and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The CHB would be the state-level nodal agency and the Secretary, CHB, would be the nodal officer for the scheme.

The Adviser said the scheme would be implemented by the CHB through concessionaire to be appointed through the transparent bidding process as per the guidelines of the ARHCs scheme issued by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

In light of Covid-19 pandemic, the country witnessed reverse migration of migrants and urban poor. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the scheme to provide ease of living, access to dignified and planned housing at affordable rent to migrant labour and urban poor. The scheme will be implemented by utilising existing government-funded vacant houses to convert them into ARHCs through public-private partnership or by public agencies and construction, operation and maintenance of ARHCs by public or private entities on their own vacant land.

The scheme will help urban migrants, who stay in slums, informal settlements, unauthorised colonies and peri-urban areas to save cost on housing.

Beneficiaries for the scheme will be urban migrants and poor from the EWS or LIG categories. The complexes will be a mix of single or double-bedroom dwelling units and dormitory of 4/6 beds, including all common facilities, which will be exclusively used for rental housing for a minimum period of 25 years.