The Pune Municipal Corporation standing committee on Tuesday gave conditional approval to the civic administration proposal for giving subsidy in premium on construction of smaller houses in order to promote cheap housing in the city.

The civic administration had proposed 25 per cent subsidy for construction having flats of 50 sq m to 80 sq m and 50 per cent subsidy for scheme with houses of 30 sq m to 50 sq m. The civic body had faced criticism after the proposal was rejected earlier in the standing committee.

The higher property prices had made it difficult for the middle class citizens to have their own houses in the city. However, the industry was also hard hit due to economic slow down with no more bookings. The revenue collection through building permission had reduced drastically due to slow down. The civic administration had said that the proposal would enable increase in revenue for the PMC while also help in promoting low cost housing.

The political parties expressed concern that the builders would not percolate the benefits to the end-buyer and the plan would not get in favour of citizens.

To ensure that the public benefit from it and the builders wont make most of it, standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam said that certain conditions have been put on administration for its effective implementation.

The builders cannot combine two small flats into one after taking benefit of the scheme also it will be the responsibility of the administration that the benefit goes to the end user and not to the builder, he said.