10 MN Government estimate of shortage of houses in India, of which more than 90 per cent is in EWS and LIG categories
SOLAPUR, IN SOUTH-WEST Maharashtra, is dotted with sugar factories and beedi/textile units. This small town, where thousands of labourers live in slums and makeshift shelters, hit headlines last year when the central government approved a massive affordable housing project for beedi/textile workers and other unorganised labourers. The initiative, for building 30,000 houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), is arguably the first such project on private land. Being undertaken by Raynagar Cooperative Housing Federation along with Pandhe Infracon, a local realtor, it is likely to cost over `1,800 crore, and has been eliciting overwhelming response from buyers. “We have got around 38,000 applications so far,” says…