September 18, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 17, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 17: The pilot project of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto low-cost houses in Ketti Bunder, district Thatta, has been completed with the UNDP assistance and ready for inhabitation, it was reliably learnt on Wednesday.

Under the project 200 cyclone-proof houses have been built with energy-efficient technology, developed by the UNDP, which keeps the room temperature relatively low during summer. The estimated cost of each unit is Rs200,000.

The allotment documents and possession of houses would be handed over to the allottees within a month at a ceremony where President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, had been requested to be chief guest, informed sources said.

The pilot project is a step forward towards fulfilment of the party’s agenda of providing shelter to everyone. In the budget, Rs16 million has been provided for this purpose.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had earlier pledged that 100,000 housing units would be built for the poor and homeless people in Sindh. The government has already selected sites in Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana and other major cities for setting up such low-cost houses.

Sindh Chief Secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman told Dawn that the cyclone-proof units built in Thatta pilot project were specifically designed to bear the uncertainty of weather along the sea.

Besides, the government was working on village housing projects. Under the scheme, 10 under-developed villages will be selected in each district and 10 poorest persons living in those villages will be identified through transparent means by the DCOs, in consultation with relevant nazims and other notables, for the allotment of low-cost housing units.

Only the government registered and duly sanctioned villages, which are not built on private lands, will be considered for the development project.

According to Katchi Abadis Minister Rafique Engineer, the selected families will be provided construction material for two-room houses with veranda, kitchen and washroom. The villagers will be asked to construct houses on a self-help basis, while the government will provide them technical guidance, he added.—Staff Reporter