City's slums to get face lift

By J.S. Ifthekhar

HYDERABAD, OCT. 19. The situation in the 600-odd slums in the twin cities is poised to look up with the Hyderabad Sustainable Community Development Project (HSCDP) getting the Centre's nod.

The new scheme formulated by the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has been agreed in principle by the Urban Affairs and Employment Ministry. The project is being posed to the Department for Infrastructure Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom for funding under the City Alliance Programme. The 10-year project is expected to receive an annual assistance of Rs. 1 crore exclusively for development of slums.

The HSCDP will also receive aid from the World Bank, UNCHS and the Government of Italy. However, the quantum of aid from these bodies is yet to be finalised. The project has various components like training, education, health, water, sanitation, women and child development, besides infrastructure development.

According to sources, the MCH did not go seeking funds this time. On the other hand, the international agencies were themselves keen to fund the programme. The pace of development and the happening image of the city is said to have done the trick. The Corporation had only to send the proposal and promptly it was okayed. It might be recalled that for 10 years from 1985, the 811 slums in the city were developed under the Hyderabad Slum Improvement Project with funding from the Overseas Development Authority of the UK. A sum of Rs. 450 crores was spent on housing, training and infrastructure.

Presently the MCH is spending 10 per cent of the revenue from property tax in slums along with the funds received under the National Slum Development Programme, Assembly Constituency Development scheme and M.P Local Area Development scheme.

In order to better the lot of slum-dwellers, the MCH has decided to provide extra FSI, relaxation in coverage to builders who come forward to provide land free of cost to slum-dwellers and undertake group housing for them with lift facility. The State Government has also agreed to this proposal, it is said. The MCH is already extending the extra FSI benefit to two such projects coming up on the S.D. Road, Secunderabad.

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