By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 21, 2017: Odisha government on Friday approved a housing project under Urban Housing Mission Abaas Yojana in which total 22,224 beneficiaries will avail pucca houses in 86 town.

The project was approved at Odisha Urban Housing Mission meeting chaired by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.

Both Centre and State share funds in the urban housing project. While Centre provides Rs 1.5 lakh per a house under the scheme, the state spends Rs 50,000 per beneficiary from State budget. The beneficiary can avail loan upto Rs 1 lakh as per the size of the house from bank.

Currently, 28,749 families residing in 88 towns in Odisha have been covered under the scheme.

Besides, the construction process for slum development project in Rourkela and Bhubaneswar is in progress.

Padhi directed to include the towns having large number of slums under the housing scheme on priority basis.

Similarly, the government is constructing 6,442 pucca houses for families belonging to economically weaker section in Bhubaneswar, Jatni and Khordha in PPP mode.

Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had launched Abass Yojana on Oct 11, 2015 under Odisha Housing Mission covering economically weaker section people in the state.

The scheme was merged with Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Abbas Yojana.