MUMBAI, April 2: The state government plans to float a public issue to generate a sizeable chunk of the estimated Rs 4,500 crore to make its ambitious Slum Redevelopment Scheme (SRD) a reality.In an exclusive interview to Express Newsline, Housing Minister Suresh Jain said part of the estimated expenditure to build two lakh houses by December 1999, will be raised through the public issue. ``We have already held talks with various merchant bankers and received encouraging responses. We will launch the issue as soon as possible,'' Jain said. The strategy is part of an action plan drafted by Jain for the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), to ensure the success of the SRD scheme. ``SRD is going to be the key issue in the next Assembly elections scheduled for March 2000,'' Jain said.The plan was submitted to MHADA early last week and was accepted by its Chairperson Vilas Avchat at the board meeting.The state government had announced its ambitious SRD scheme to provide houses to40 lakh slum dwellers in Mumbai after coming to power in 1995 but the scheme has scarcely taken off.However, Jain is confident of the plan to raise finances succeeding and he predicted that real estate prices in Mumbai would fall considerably.Divulging details of the plan, Jain said, ``The state government has received 65,000 proposals till date. However, work has started in only 12,000 cases. ``The government will ensure that construction of the rest of the houses begins by the end of June this year. This is first phase of the plan. In the second phase, 50,000 houses will be built to be used as transit camps. Construction for 10,000 of these will start within three months at Dindoshi, Malvani, Chembur, Ghatkopar and Mankhurd on plots owned by the BMC and the government. ``These houses will serve the dual purpose of building transit camps and providing houses to the slumdwellers already occupying them,'' Jain said.Phase three will involve construction of 55,000 houses on 155 plots owned by MHADA,which are at present encroached upon by slum dwellers, he said. ``This phase will provide the government with an additional 20,000 flats which will be sold in the open market so that the government can profit,'' Jain said.
