The long period of 17 years taken for launching the housing project resulted in avoidable costs for the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Naidu, who is the chairman of the Upper House of Parliament, said during a virtual event.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone for a Rs 46 crore housing complex for Rajya Sabha employees here and expressed concern over the delay in launching of the project. Land in R K Puram was allotted for the project in 2003.
The long period of 17 years taken for launching the housing project resulted in avoidable costs for the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Naidu, who is the chairman of the Upper House of Parliament, said during a virtual event.
He also referred to the social-economic-legal-administrative cobwebs that resulted in non-utilisation of the precious land resource and the several rounds of meetings he had held over the last two years with various officials to remove the hurdles in the way of utilisation of the land, according to a statement.
The plan is to build 40 dwelling units on the land in RK Puram, it said.
Naidu pointed out that if the 8,700 square metres of land allotted for the Rajya Sabha Secretariat in 2003 was put to use in time, the secretariat could have benefitted significantly in the form of house rent allowance, besides recovering substantial portion of the investment in the housing project by now.
Referring to the huge annual rent of Rs 30 crore being paid by the secretariat for locating RSTV in the NDMC Complex, he said relocation of the channel to R K Puram would have also benefitted substantially.
Noting that provisioning of housing close to work place motivates employees to give their best, Naidu expressed concern over inadequate housing facility for employees of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat given their long and arduous working hours, particularly, when the House is in session.
Speaking on the occasion, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri assured Naidu that though the NBCC has indicated a three-year period for the completion of the housing complex, in view of shortage of housing facilities, all efforts will be made to complete it well ahead of time.
He said that the Housing For All Mission in urban areas launched in 2016 has been progressing well with 1.07 crore houses already sanctioned and the target of 1.12 crore houses to be met very soon, much ahead of the target of 2022.