The answer to the country’s abysmal story on urban poor housing can be lower income group townships  Currently, the second largest growing economy India is expected to overtake China and emerge the fastest growing economy by 2018. Even after this, the country’s urban landscape is dotted with slums, forcing a chunk of the population to live in sub-standard houses surrounded by dirt and squalor. Even the air in these run-down areas of the cities is too tainted. The development of these areas has thus become imperative for the overall growth of the country. Rehabilitation of slum dwellers is possible through concerted collaborative efforts of the government and the real estate sector. LIG, the ideal way
The answer to the country’s abysmal story on urban poor housing can be lower income group (LIG) townships. The slums can be developed into modern LIG townships with proper sanitation and infrastructural facilities, which eventually can lead the Centre close to its ambitious promise of a ‘slum-free’ India. On the other hand, the slum dwellers can take subsidised soft loans from banks to avail an apartment in these LIG townships. Cheers to LIG, the mere imagination of Dharavi (Asia’a biggest slum located in the heart of Mumbai) being rehabilitated is giving me an adrenaline rush.
In addition to the residential segment, these townships can also include retail markets, which in turn can create livelihood opportunities for people residing in the erstwhile slums. Moreover, such models can also add a lot of value to the country’s urban landscape, propagating a clean and healthy living for all its citizens.
In short, the numerous benefits attached to this model include rehabilitation of slum dwellers, transformation of the dirty slums into clean and healthy living spaces; creating employment opportunities for these overlooked dwellers; solving the problem of new land for development for a developer and lastly beautifying urban India.
Govt impetus
Apart from introducing the National Slum Development Programme, the Centre in coordination with the several state governments is taking up slum development and rehabilitation projects across India in recent times. For instance, in many cities such as Kolkata and New Delhi, street hawkers have been rehabilitated into a new retail complex, where the model is such that in a single building the basement has been used for hawkers, whereas the upper floors are utilised for up-market retail and commercial spaces. Consequently, such models have enabled the developer to maintain profit margins as well as fulfil his responsibilities towards social upliftment.
The same thing can be implemented in case of development of slum areas. The Centre has already done its bit by mandating the rule of having LIG housing units in all the housing complexes and townships. The slum areas can thus be rehabilitated into proper housing units and some portion can be used for other models in order to leverage margins for realtors, eventually enriching the value of realty across India.
Our country is developing at a break-neck speed and to keep up the pace, it is high time that we should all join hands in converting the slum areas into hygienic and opportunity-enabled living places for its dwellers. Such holistic development of the living conditions of the society’s lower strata will also help to reduce the pressure on the economy.
Nityanand Sonthalia, executive director of Shriram Ozone Group of Companies, a well-known property developer based in Kolkata |
