Ongole: Long wait of TIDCO beneficiaries to end soon

Ongole: The seven-year wait of the beneficiaries of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) is expected to end by December 2023, provided the present pace of construction is maintained.

The housing projects are being executed by the Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (AP TIDCO) in Prakasam district. The houses under the scheme were supposed to be ready by July 2023. The PMAY-U was launched in 2015 by the Union government, and the State government appointed APTIDCO as the nodal agency for the completion of the 20.74 lakh houses sanctioned.

Under the project, the State government proposed to construct three types of houses of 300 square feet, 365 sq feet and 430 sq feet and estimated the cost of construction would be Rs 6.50 lakh, Rs 7.15 lakh and Rs 7.60 lakh. Apart from the Rs 3 lakh bank loan, and Rs 1.5 lakh from the Union government, the beneficiaries must pay Rs 1,25,000 and Rs 50,000 as their contribution, and the State government would bear the remaining cost.

The beneficiaries who paid their contribution have been waiting for the completion of the project ever since.

In the erstwhile Prakasam district, the government approved construction of 4,128 houses in Ongole, 1,408 houses in Kandukur, 1,248 in Giddalur, 960 in Addanki, 912 in Markapuram, and another 912 houses in Kanigiri under PMAY-U scheme, and the TIDCO started the construction of houses.

Meanwhile, the State government ordered the stopping of the TIDCO houses that were under less than 25 per cent of construction.

Following series of protests and demonstrations by the beneficiaries of the TIDCO houses, the State government asked them to choose between TIDCO houses and YSR Housing Scheme.

Many of them chose to go with the TIDCO houses and the government directed agencies to continue the construction. But the agencies took more time to get convinced and restart the projects, while the government extended the fresh deadline for the completion of all TIDCO projects in the Prakasam district to July 2023.

G Venkateswara Rao, project officer of the TIDCO houses in Prakasam district, said that the construction of houses in Kandukur was started in phase-I of the scheme, while the construction in other local bodies started in phase-III. He said that 1,408 houses in Kandukur were completed and are ready to occupy, but the civil works in phase-III projects are yet to be completed.

Tenders for the construction of sewage treatment plants have been called for. He claimed that the construction technology, Mivan Aluminium Wall Formwork, was being used so that the buildings remain strong and rugged to withstand all types of weather.

He said that they require about Rs 332 crore for the completion of all projects.