& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Low-cost housing planned for slum dwellers

Raihan Sabuktagin
A low-cost housing project has been undertaken under the joint initiative of the government and NGOs for slum dwellers and low-income people of the city.
Several six-storey buildings will be built on five acres of land in Mirpur in the city. Each buildings will have several 600 square feel flats.
The National Housing Authority (NHA) is now processing handover of the land at Bastuhara in Mirpur Section-11 for the experimental project.
Coalition for Urban Poor (CUP), an umbrella body of some non-government organisations (NGO), will supervise construction and selling of the flats among the slum dwellers and low-income people.
Nurul Islam, executive engineer of NHA Dhaka Division-1 said they have already demarcated the land and sent documents to the higher authorities for approval.
NHA has asked CUP for taking possession of the land allotted for the housing scheme.
Mostafa Quaium, executive director of CUP, said the steering committee on rehabilitation of slum dwellers sought 120 acres of land for rehabilitating at least 12,000 urban poor but the government provided only 5 acres.
He said a tripartite lease agreement will be signed between the NHA, CUP and the fortunate slum dwellers before handover of the flats.
Design of the apartments has not been finished yet. “We are looking forward to get the land first and then we will finalise the number of buildings," Mostofasaid.
The steering committee planned to construct tin-shed houses so that slum dwellers could afford it, but the government approved 600 sq feet flats, he added.
He said CUP is expecting to rehabilitate about 2,000 families on the 5 acres of land.
As the government failed to provide fund for the project, CUP will find donors like UN habitat, Asian Development Bank for construction of the flats after handover of the land.
"We are not looking for any commercial investor," Mostofasaid.
About payment mode for these flats, Mostafa said slum dwellers would get 15 to 20 years to pay the price for their flats.
About 30,000 families were evicted from over 50 slums in Dhaka through drives between 2003 and the middle of 2007, according to estimation of CUP.
Those eviction drives caused damage worth about Tk 34 crore displacing thousands of families. Twenty-two drives were conducted in 2007 under the caretaker government.
Mostafa said that these eviction drives would have grave impact on the life of the middle class and upper class families because most of these evicted people provide different kinds of services to the city dwellers.
Moreover, slum eviction increases the number of floating population in the city.
Housing problem of urban poor is getting an acute shape in the city as a large number of poor and working people are migrating to the city regularly from the rural areas, he said.