A House For Every Indian

Solapur, in south west Maharashtra, is dotted with sugar factories and beedi/textile units. This small town, where thousands of labourers live in slums and makeshift shelters, hit headlines last year when the central government approved a massive affordable housing project for beedi/textile workers and other unorganised labourers. The initiative, for building 30,000 houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), is arguably the first such project on private land. Being undertaken by Raynagar Cooperative Housing Federation along with Pandhe Infracon, a local realtor, it is likely to cost over Rs1,800 crore, and has been eliciting overwhelming response from buyers. "We have got around 38,000 applications so far," says Ankur Pandhe, Managing Director, Pandhe Infracon. A typical house here measures about 375 sq. ft and is priced at Rs5 lakh. The project has open spaces as well as land earmarked for community services, schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure. Both state government and municipal corporation are working overtime to provide amenities such as electricity and water.

This is one of the few success stories of what has been a mostly government led drive but also involving