BUILDERS SEEK MORE FOR 2BHK

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s pet project — two-bedroom houses for poor — does not seem to take off anytime soon as contractors are demanding higher construction cost.

Despite the government calling for tenders thrice, none of the contractors have responded as they feel `900 per square foot offered by the government is non-viable. They want at least `1,100 per sft — `200 more than the government’s offer.

Speaking to this newspaper, housing minister A. Indrakaran Reddy said the government will discuss this issue with the contractors and issue a fresh tender notification soon. After that, he said he will discuss the issue with the CM and find out a solution. He asked the contractors to take up the construction of double bedroom houses without looking their profit since it is belong to poor people.

The two bedroom house project is one of the flagship programmes of the TRS government for people without an own house. In Greater Hyderabad Municipal corporation limits, each unit was priced `7.55 lakh, `6.55 lakh in other urban areas and `6.29 lakh in the rural areas.

For this, the Central government is providing `1.25 lakh per unit in rural areas and `1.50 lakh in urban areas. The state government has allotted `11,000 crore. Apart from this, the government is providing free sand and cheaper cement.