State government focusing on quality of Tamil Nadu Housing Board houses, says Minister

The State government is focusing on the quality of construction and ensuring that projects of Tamil Nadu Housing Board have all the required permissions, said Minister for Housing and Urban Development S. Muthusamy in Coimbatore on April 23, 2023.

The State government is focusing on the quality of construction and ensuring that projects of Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) have all the required permissions, said Minister for Housing and Urban Development S. Muthusamy here on Sunday.

After inspecting the projects of the Board in the city, he said that with the recent initiative to develop projects through joint ventures, private developers were roped in. The developer could sell a portion of the project to his customers. This would bring in quality.

“This is a new initiative and hence it is taking time to catch on,” the Minister said.

Mr. Muthusamy said that at Singanallur in Coimbatore, about 960 TNHB houses were in a poor state and many occupants had vacated. These would be redeveloped now through joint venture and the foundation was laid for the redevelopment works on Sunday. There were similar requirements at 12 places in the State. In such projects, usually all the house owners were expected to sign their agreement for redevelopment. Now, the State government had amended this norm and two-third majority was adequate to start the redevelopment works.

About 3,000 houses of TNHB were remaining unsold in the State when the DMK government came to power. About 1,000 of these were sold now and a few departments have come forward to take houses in bulk, he said.

Regarding issuance of patta for the houses sold already, the Minister said that a camp was held and 11,000 pattas were issued. In order to help more house owners get the patta, the government had allocated ₹53 crore for interest reduction so that the owners could pay the full amount and get the patta and ₹10 crore had been used so far.

A five-storey commercial complex of nearly 27,000 sq.ft constructed in Coimbatore would be rented out soon. The rents would be finalised in the next few days, he said.