Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin announced an additional allocation of Rs 400 crore for the Kalignar Dream House Scheme, which would ensure that Tamil Nadu became a ‘State without huts’ as eight lakh houses would be constructed in rural areas in the next six years.
Already the government had earmarked Rs 3500 crore for building one lakh concrete houses at the rate of Rs 3,50,000 per house, under the dream house scheme for the year 2024-25. Then when a survey was taken for the House for the initiative in rural areas, it was found that there were eight lakh thatched huts.
So the objective now was to do away with all huts and replace them with concrete houses by 2030. In the current financial year, 2024-25, one lakh huts were constructed, each of them having 360 square feet space, with the government providing TANCEM cement and steel rods.
Under the scheme, beneficiaries would get funds in four stages through the single nodal account. The first release of funds would be done when the house was built up to the ground level, the second instalment when the construction reached the window level, third after the roof level and the final release on completion of the building.
The Kalignar Dream House scheme has been received well by the people and the government has already reimbursed Rs 860.31 crore out of the total allocation of Rs 1051.34 crore, besides providing cement and steel through the department costing Rs 135.30 crore, thus taking the total expenses to Rs 995.61 crore.
Now to expedite the construction of the houses, the government had released another Rs 400 crore, taking the total amount credited to the bank account of beneficiaries to Rs 1451 crore, as it was particular about completing the entire project before the end of this financial year.
