Tamil Nadu likely to receive USD 500 million from World Bank for building homes for the urban poor

CHENNAI :  The World Bank is likely to provide USD 500-million assistance to Tamil Nadu for building 40,000 homes for the urban poor.The move comes after the State government had made the announcement in the Assembly to build homes for the urban poor.A top housing department official told Express that the World Bank had accepted the ‘Tamil Nadu Sustainable and Resilient Housing and Habitat Development for Urban Poor’ project and the Union government department of Economic Affairs has cleared it.

It is learnt negotiations are on with World Bank officials who accord final sanction to the project. The officials are in the city and high-level meetings have been organised wherein the concept note of the project prepared by the State and cleared by DEA is being discussed.“The value of the entire project is $715 million of which the World Bank is likely to sanction USD 500 million,” the official said.

It is learnt that the World Bank officials will be visiting the housing development projects on September 4 and inspect households which have been relocated and resettled from rehabilitated waterways.Sources said the negotiations have been on since May when a delegation of World Bank undertook a scoping mission for the affordable housing project from May 16 to May 18. At that time, they held meetings with the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Company, Slum Clearance Board and Chennai River Restoration Trust.

Interestingly, the Tamil Nadu government has already taken `4,145-crore loan from the World Bank in 2015 for stormwater drain network, water supply, solid waste and underground drainage network. The World Bank aid comes after Tamil Nadu has carried a demand assessment of 8.30 lakh houseless households under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in urban areas of the state under PMAY’s four components:  In-situ rehabilitation, Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme, Beneficiary led Construction (BLC) and Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP).

According to the State Urban Housing and Habitat Policy (SUHHP) being drafted by German agency GIZ along with the state Housing Board, Tamil Nadu is facing a shortage of 1.5 million homes in the urban areas and there is an urgent need to regulate and streamline private urban rental housing to enable access to the urban poor.