Punjab Government to construct, fix prices of EWS flats

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, July 6

The Punjab Housing Department will fix the price of the flats being built for the economically weaker section (EWS) category in different urban estates across the state.

Takes land from private builders

• Since private builders did not show interest in developing flats for the EWS category, the Housing Department will construct these
• The government has now taken possession of chunks of land reserved for the EWS and asked private builders to deposit Rs 1,500 per square feet in lieu of providing apartments

The land cost and external development charges will be exempted from the cost.

A senior government functionary said since private builders did not show interest in developing flats for the EWS category, the department would construct these.

Near 500 acres meant for EWS housing had remained unutilised for the purpose. The government has now taken possession of chunks of land reserved for the EWS and asked the private builders to deposit Rs 1,500 per square feet in lieu of providing EWS apartments.

Under the new proposed rules, 90 per cent area in every EWS pocket will be reserved for housing and the remaining 10 per cent used for community facilities on the sites having an area more than three acres. For the maintenance of the flats, an EWS corpus of Rs 10,000 per dwelling unit would be created.

To incentivise the EWS housing, the Local Government Department has allowed an EWS colony on 1.5 acres of land against 5 acres required earlier and a group housing project, under affordable housing, can be built on a half-acre of land against two acres.

To further incentivise, the department has cut the land size requirements, while increasing the minimum required road width from 25 ft to 30 ft.

The area for parks has been slightly reduced to increase the road width. The built-up or saleable area for residential and commercial projects has also been increased by 10 per cent, subject to certain conditions.