KARACHI, July 13: The Sindh government has identified five locations in the metropolis to acquire 525 acres for a low-cost housing project.

Located in Mauripur, Keamari, Bin Qasim and Gadap towns, these are part of the 100 sites proposed for acquiring land in 22 districts in the province so that work on the People’s Housing Programme could be initiated.

The Sindh government has also directed the Malir Development Authority to furnish land under its jurisdiction for construction of houses to be allotted to the low income groups under the programme as per advice of the federal government. A recently held meeting, presided over by Chief Secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman, asked the board of revenue and other stake-holders to expedite the process in this connection.

The proposed land comprised 100 acres in Keamari Town, 25 acres in Mauripur, 100 acres in Bin Qasim Town, 100 acres and 200 acres in Gadap Town, said Sindh Minister for Katchi Abadis Rafique Engineer. The low-cost housing project was one of the promises made during the election campaign by Benazir Bhutto before her assassination.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, being a senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, took the initiative to give practical shape to the party’s founding slogan of providing shelter to the poor, he said.

In the budget 2008-09, the government announced to build 100,000 housing units for the poor, he said, adding that these would be in addition to the 10 villages, which would be selected for building housing units in each district.

Rafique Engineer said the government would arrange transfer title of the new houses along with land to the inhabitants, which could be mortgaged for acquiring loans from banks to get quality seeds and fertiliser to increase the agriculture output.

He said arrangements were also being made to acquire services of the HBFC and Micro Finance Bank to provide loan for construction of the houses to the deserving people, which would be recovered in easy instalments.

He said the revenue department had been asked to process the land and transfer it to the DCOs for implementation of the programme in towns and villages. He claimed that the government was keen to fulfil its promise by providing shelter to the poor. He said that a steering committee on the People’s Housing Programme was already working to expedite the process. Besides, it has been learnt that the government is mulling over to set up a high-powered housing and katchi abadis commission under the chief minister by restructuring the existing Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority and renaming it as Sindh Housing and Katchi Abadis Authority through some amendments being made to its Act 1987.

After its formation, all the existing development authorities, including MDA, LDA and HDA, would be placed under the Sindh Housing and Katchi Abadis Authority.