Addressing the mid-term session and seminar on pre-fabrication and mechanisation in building construction organised by the Indian Building Congress here today, Jain revealed that MHADA has already begun preparing the action plan for the houses which will be constructed in areas outside Mumbai and Pune.

Stating that preliminaries have already been initiated, he explained that the prices of houses have been maintained at Rs 50,000 for the economically weaker section and Rs 1.50 lakh for low income groups.

Even as the Sena-BJP Government has mooted an ambitious plan to construct two million houses and free housing to 40,000 slum-dwellers, he said since the Government was not in a position to meet the targets, contracts have been awarded for construction of 50,000 houses by the start of next year which will be completed by the year 2000 AD, he said.

Emphasising that pre-fabrication and mechanisation was the need of the hour to meet the heavy pressure on housing, the Minister pointed out that as against a demand of 800,000 houses, the State Government has only succeeded in supplying two lakh houses. However, the State Government has brought down the prices of houses by 40 per cent. He stressed that pre-fabrication would help provide good quality housing at a time when a number of buildings were collapsing in Mumbai.

Minister for Public Works Nitin Gadkari in his presidential address stressed the need for cost effective housing for the poor man. He also emphasised time-bound, result-oriented and quality conscious work.