Chandigarh housing board to revive sector 53 scheme with cost cuts
![Representative Image](https://st.etb2bimg.com/Themes/Release/images/responsive/etrealty-default.jpg)
CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh Housing Board has decided to revive the city’s costliest housing scheme in Sector 53, with plans to increase the affordability factor of the scheme.
The scheme was scrapped earlier this year after poor public response because of high prices.
“To reduce the cost of the flats, the CHB is planning to focus on only a few categories of flats. The suggestion to cut on the plans for detailed furnishing and interiors is also being considered to cut costs, which is likely to reduce cost by Rs 15 lakh per unit. The buyers will get cheaper houses, and can construct interiors as per their own choice and budget,” said a UT official.
In its original avatar, the proposed scheme comprised 492 dwelling units of different categories — 192 three-bedroom flats, 100 two-bedroom flats, 120 one-bedroom flats and 80 EWS flats.
The flats were priced at Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore. The scheme offered a 3 BHK flat for Rs 1.5 crore, a 2 BHK flat for Rs 1.28 crore, a 1 BHK flat for Rs 86 lakh and an EWS flat for Rs 50 lakh.A demand survey was conducted in December 2019, but due to poor response, the launch of the scheme was withheld. The main reason for poor response was high cost of the flats because of land cost taken on the basis of collector rate.
The CHB had requested the UT urban planning department on May 5, 2020, to increase the FAR to 2 from 1.5, density to 350 from 250 PPA and height to G+6 from G+5 on the pattern of adjoining UT employees housing scheme in Sector 53. However, the architecture department had turned down the request.
The housing board had submitted that to make it an affordable housing scheme, there was an urgent need to increase FAR. By offering more space in the flats, the buyers would be interested in a housing scheme, which can evoke good response, the CHB had submitted.
In March 2020, the board had scrapped the scheme in Sector 53 and decided to refund the amount to applicants decided by the demand survey. However, the officers were asked to consider framing a new scheme with lesser cost. There was a poor response to the demand survey of the scheme, as only 178 applicants came up for 492 flats. The CHB had reduced prices of flats twice and even extended the deadline for a demand survey.