EWS buyers reluctant to take BDA flats
Despite of subsidies given to the economically weaker sections, there are very few takers for Bangalore Development Authority’s (BDA) low cost single bedroom flats. Now the BDA is planning to convert some of the flats into double or three bedroom flats.
BDA has proposed to allot over 4,300 flats this time but they have received only 1,200 applications. For which they are planning to convert around 2,000 single bedroom apartments into two bedroom houses as there is considerable demand for them.
The authority is not able to figure out the reason of such response. The BDA has proposed to built 4,388 one bedroom apartments, 1170 double bedroom apartments and 632 three bedroom apartments at Halagevaderahalli, Valagerahalli, Malgala, Gunjur, Thippsandra, Dodda Banahalli, Haluru and Kothanur to provide low-cost housing.
According to BDA policies, 50 percent of the flats are reserved for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, Backward Classes and other categories. Therefore, only 50 per cent of these flats will be allotted for general categories.
Moreover, the Bangalore Development Authority has provided subsidies of Rs 2 lakh for those apartments which are priced lower and Rs 3 lakh is being given for houses priced at Rs11.2 lakh for the economically weaker sections. The single-bedroom houses are priced between Rs 9.5 lakh and Rs11.2 lakh.
The two-bedroom houses are priced between Rs 14.5 and Rs 17.6 lakh and the three-bedroom houses are priced between Rs 23 and Rs 27 lakh. The price variation is due to the location of these flats.
In 2012, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between BBMP and Maverick Holdings & Investments Private Limited on the development of a housing complex for economically weaker sections (EWS) at Koramangala. The total cost of the project is around Rs. 300 crore. The slum dwellers were supposed to get new houses within a year and half but till now they did not get their houses.
The total land for the project is around 15.64 acres from which half of the land would be used for building residential quarters for the EWS while in the remaining land, a commercial complex or mall would be built, which will fetch BBMP Rs 1.7 crore for every three months as rent.
Prashanth Sambargi, a real estate expert and analyst said that after the Arkavathy Layout disaster, many people have lost faith in BDA. Housing projects undertaken by the authority have some or the other defects.
Moreover, BDA has not showcased a model flat for people to know what they would be getting for the money they are paying.
