No concrete proposal received for PPP mode
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 30: The initiative of the Government of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to develop several new Housing Colonies has met dead-end as no concrete proposal was received under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Due to this, the repeated announcements have remained on the official papers only even after the lapse of considerable time.
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From time to time, the Government made announcements about the development of several new Housing Colonies through the Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board to meet the housing needs of the people of both the provinces.
In the middle of last year, formal Expression of Interest was floated by the Housing Board. However, the exercise got delayed due to the imposition of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for J&K Legislative Assembly elections. Thereafter, the date of Expression of Interest was extended till October 10, 2024.
However, much to the surprise of all the concerned authorities no concrete proposal was received for development of housing colonies on Public Private Partnership mode even from those developers who had evinced interest at the pre-bid stage, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “due to this, the much-talked about initiative of the Government has met dead-end”.
While confirming this, an officer of the J&K Housing Board, while wishing anonymity, said, “there was unexpected response to the Expression of Interest”, adding “we have now decided to float Request For Proposal (RFP) for engagement of empanelled Transaction Advisor, who will prepare the fresh proposal as well as Detailed Project Report while keeping in view the interests of J&K Housing Board in the development of new housing colonies”.
However, the officer failed to specify any time-frame for completion of this exercise. Due to this repeated announcements regarding development of Housing Colonies have failed to become reality even after the lapse of considerable time. “Earlier, there was delay in identification of land and now when suitable land parcels are available no developer is showing interest”, sources said.
For development of one each Mass Housing Colony at Birpur near Bari Brahmana and Padgampura in Pulwama district 45 kanals and 30 kanals of land parcels respectively have been identified by the Housing Board. Similarly, for development of Integrated Mass Housing Colony at Watapora in Bandipora and construction of flatted accommodation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) at Bhalwal in Jammu land parcels of 200 kanals and 85 kanals respectively have been identified.
Likewise, 81 kanals of land has been identified for development of flatted/plotted accommodation at Changran in Kathua; 353 kanals at Chatterhama in Srinagar for development of Housing Colony; 214 kanals at Bakoora in Ganderbal for development of Housing Colony/flatted accommodation; 41 kanals of land at Bhalwal for construction of housing facilities for Central Government and UT Government employees; 248 kanals for development of Housing Colony at Chak Bhalwal; 69 kanals at Chowadhi Jammu for development of Housing Colony and 16 kanals of land at Kanuyian in Poonch for development of Housing Colony.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier J&K Housing Board used to get the projects executed through Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode but in the recent past its Board of Directors decided that in future all the projects of the Housing Board shall be taken up on Public Private Partnership mode.
Under this mode, the Housing Board is supposed to provide identified land parcels free from all encumbrances for execution of these projects and the developer(s) will be responsible for entire project development, construction, operation, maintenance and management for proposed period. Moreover, the developers will obtain all approvals, licenses, No-Objection Certificates and clearances; arrange finances; develop of all required infrastructure and construction of all mandatory project components.
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