Ahead of polls, Karnataka govt wooing voters through two housing projects

BENGALURU: Eyeing the 2023 Assembly polls, the state government is likely to launch two ambitious housing projects in December and expect to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inauguration on December 2. The first is a scheme to build one lakh houses for the urban poor and the other is the residential township at Suryanagar on Bengaluru outskirts.

Some of the beneficiaries of the project, taken up under the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation Limited to build one lakh houses, will get their houses. Under the Suryanagar project, 30,000 families will get sites. Housing Minister V Somanna told TNIE that the government is planning to get the Prime Minister to inaugurate them. “I will discuss it with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and take a decision.”

The one lakh housing scheme was announced by the Siddaramaiah government in 2016. Since then, four chief ministers, including the incumbent Basavaraj Bommai, and four housing ministers — M Krishnappa, UT Khader, MTB Nagaraj and  V Somanna — have come to power, but have not got the project through. In May last year, Somanna, who was also the housing minister during the BS Yediyurappa government, announced that the first batch of 6,000 houses will be handed over on August 15. But nothing happened.

“At present, over 8,000 flats are almost complete and ready to be occupied. Another 52,000 flats are at various stages of completion. It is coming up in 535 acres,” he said.

Official sources said there was a proposal to inaugurate it on November 11 when Modi is in Bengaluru. But due to his hectic schedule, it was deferred to December. “We were told that there should be no loopholes. Bommai is keen and monitoring it personally,” the sources said. Suryanagar phase 3 and 4, which are decade-old, are aimed at developing 30,000 sites.

The project is coming up in 1,938 acres. Officials, who are sceptical that it could be inaugurated in December, said they are developing basic infrastructure and the works are likely to be completed in February. “They may symbolically launch it in December and start allotting sites only from February,” the official said.