The then Union Minister for Urban Development Mr. Murasoli Maran, while inaugurating the Conference of State Housing Ministers had indicated that for the Eighth Plan, the most optimistic projection is an investment of Rs. 60,000 crore for housing in both the public and private sectors. The framework of the Eighth Plan for which the Planning Commission has prepared drafts for discussions with the States and the Central Ministries is assumed to have a total outlay of Rs.6, 10,000 crore.
In other words, housing investment in the Eighth Plan is proposed to constitute about 10 percent of the total investment as against the 9 percent in the Seventh Plan. The above figures are still tentative and may undergo some changes at the time of the finalization of the Eighth Plan. Undoubtedly, subject to resource constraints the government has realized the need for attaching greater priority to housing development in recent times than in the past.
Moreover, the government has gradually assumed the role of a facilitator, and proposes to encourage private housing activity on a large scale through relaxation of legislative and administrative controls. It does not propose to undertake the construction of houses all by itself, except for the disadvantaged groups like scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, displaced persons and the economically weaker sections.
In districts like Ernakulam Real Estate developments have been controlled by the state owned housing developing agencies until recent times. Even when the cost of land is appreciating like never before, the state government and the housing development agencies are present in the hot real estate market in one way or the other. Through infrastructure development and also by building better housing amenities in government lands, the state is putting the resources under its control to better uses.
Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:55 pm