Suburb dreams

The Tatas are again blazing a trail that others would be wise to follow and policy-makers should take note of. Their group company,the Tata Housing Development Company,intends to start selling application forms for over a thousand houses Shubh Griha,theyll call them costing between four and seven lakh rupees. These are in the Mumbai suburb of Bhoisar. For which the first Google search result is a plaintive question: Where is Bhoisar? Is it in Mumbai? How do I reach Bhoisar station from Vikhroli? The form price: Rs 200. The first payment: Rs 10,000. THDC has big plans: it intends 4000 more such houses nationwide in four years.

Ambitious though that might sound,these are a drop,a mere drop in the ocean when compared to the demand that exists for quality low-cost housing in areas which are reasonably connected to workplaces. Clever policy in times of a recession should look at pent-up demand and ask: how can I convert that into trucks on the road? The answer here is clear: fix land-use conditions. In particular,reports that several companies plans for Special Economic Zones have been put on hold because of the worldwide slowdown give policy a window: let the land-use criteria for those zones be altered such that low-cost housing can be built on them.

The standard constraints to new housing developments purchase,land use,permits and so on could be taken care of at one go,especially if theres political will behind the idea. With new-government wind behind it,there could be construction in a matter of months,and thousands of new home-owners. Let that land,rather than lying fallow waiting for recovery elsewhere,become visible symbols of the urbanisation process and a dynamic India. And,incidentally,lets get a few trucks on the road again.