Efforts Underway to Complete 3.13 Lakh TIDCO Houses: AP Minister

Vijayawada: Urban development minister Ponguru Narayana has said efforts were on to complete the construction of TIDCO houses and arrange the basic facilities in them.

The minister informed the AP legislature on Thursday that permission has been taken from the Centre to build 7 lakh houses through TIDCO. “We are trying to complete 3,13,832 houses by the end of December with all basic facilities.”

Narayana was replying to questions from Telugu Desam MLAs PGVR Naidu, Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, Tenali Sravan Kumar and Kolikapudi Srinivasa Rao on Thursday.

On the details of TIDCO houses constructed between 2014-2019 and the and basic facilities provided in the houses in several areas in Visakhapatnam district, Narayana said TIDCO houses are meant for the poor women. Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu wanted these houses to be constructed and handed over to the women beneficiaries as early as possible, he said.

The minister said that when he had been abroad in relation to the construction of Amaravati capital, he studied how the houses were constructed for the poor there. “The centre has given permission to construct a total of 7,01,481 houses through TIDCO, of which 5,00,000 houses have been issued administrative permissions under the TD government of 2014.”

The minister said that out of the total 5 lakh houses, tenders were called for 3,13,832 houses. Some 77,371 houses were completed, while 89,671 houses are ready by 75 per cent and 49,329 houses by 50 per cent.

Narayana said 2,16,370 houses have been completed by 2019. Some 52,192 houses were removed from the list because the YSR Congress government has not completed even 25 per cent of the houses. Work on some 2,61,640 houses have been started in 104 municipalities.

Tenders have been called for 864 houses in Visakhapatnam Padmanabha Nagar, he said.

In Mulagada (Visakhapatnam), 504 houses have been allocated and construction of 336 houses completed. Even though the construction of houses has been completed in some places, basic facilities have not been provided to these, the minister said.