10 lakh houses in 5 years: of 2,000 hectares land in state, Pune to have 100

Under the state government’s flagship programme of providing 10 lakh houses in five years, it is creating a land bank of 2,000 hectares in the state. Of this, nearly 100 hectares will be in Pune.

“Although it will be a daunting task, we will have to make land available. A part of the land from the MIDC along with the land under the Urban Land Ceiling Act will be earmarked for housing. In Nagpur, the government has already allocated 350 hectares and similar allotment has been done for all metros,” an official said.

The houses will be about 500 sq ft or below and will be made available to lower and middle classes in particular through MHADA. The government proposes to develop the houses with the help of private sector.

“They would be given 10-20 per cent of the developed land just as it is done for SEZ.” The government had recently announced 2.5 FSI for MHADA schemes.

The official said the land bank will be needed to boost construction activity to improve housing stock. While the arrangement is that rural and semi-urban areas will be provided land for housing and if agricultural land is taken, farmers will get back the developed land.

A city-based realtor, on the condition of anonymity, said though the government wants private-public partnership, there is a need to improve the infrastructure as well.

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