NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Tuesday approved construction of 5,012 houses for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) at three locations at an estimated cost of Rs 654 crore. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The meeting was also attended by Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain.

The Board at the meeting granted administrative approval and expenditure sanction for Rs 654.33 crore for construction of the EWS houses.

"As many as 3,780 EWS houses will be constructed in Pocket-F Bhalswa in Jahangirpuri with an expenditure of Rs 493 crore. The construction of 784 EWS houses will be done at Dev Nagar in Karol Bagh with an expenditure of Rs 102 crore and 448 EWS houses will be built at Kasturba Niketan in Lajpat Nagar with an estimated amount of Rs 58 crore," an official statement said.

All these housing complexes will be 14-storeyed each. The Board will request the Delhi government to allocate Rs 500 crore as seed money for taking up the proposed projects.

The DUSIB budget for the financial year 2017-18 was Rs 381.47 crore –Rs 165.72 crore for non-plan side and Rs 215.75 crore for plan head.

The Congress-led Sheila Dikshit had constructed more than 22,000 EWS houses, which were not allotted till December 2013.

While DUSIB and DSIIDC agencies have received 50 per cent of the funds for the projects from the Centre under the now-discontinued Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), recovering the remaining is turning out to be a big problem. "The other 50 per cent has to come from three parties – the beneficiaries, the land owning agencies, and the state government. While the Delhi government did allocate funds, the other parties have not," the statement said.



