By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, June 25, 2016 : All the 110 urban local bodies (ULBs) of Odisha have been brought under the AWAS Yojana of the Odisha Urban Housing Mission at a meeting of the State Level Sanctioning Committee held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Saturday.

The committee also cleared the housing projects submitted by 41 cities. Padhi directed the Odisha Urban Housing Mission to make appropriate utilisation of the open space provided for urban housing projects. A total number of 23,911 housing units were approved for these cities.

Urban Housing Mission Director Sachin R Yadhav said the housing units would come up with financial support from the union, state governments and beneficiary contribution. The concerned ULB would develop necessary basic infrastructure. The detailed project report [DPRs] submitted by 41 ULBs were approved in the meeting with a total estimated cost of around Rs 71,914 crore.

The cost per dwelling unit would be around Rs 3 lakh out of which the union government and the state government would provide Rs2 lakh. The balance money would be contribution from the beneficiary.

The beneficiary could contribute his labor towards this cost. Those in dire need would also be linked with bank loan for this contribution. The loan would be payable in vary easy installments.

Meanwhile, District Urban Housing Societies (DUHS) have been formed in 30 districts along with one at Bhubaneswar for monitoring the implementation of the projects. All the 110 ULBs have been clustered under 31 DUHSs.

The State Level Technical Cell sources said that in the first phase, 50 municipal bodies and corporations were asked to submit their proposals against which 41 submitted the DPRs. The rest ULBs were asked to submit their DPRs by end of July. Similarly, in the 2nd phase, all NACs have been asked to submit their DPRs by end of August.