Years after the Slum Rehabilitation Project under the Chandigarh Small Flats Scheme-2006 was conceptualised, with the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) as the nodal agency, none of the beneficiary has been allotted a unit so far. The CHB officials claim the work is going on swiftly and will be completed soon.

Out of total 25,728, construction has started on a mere 2,720 flats in Sector 38 (W), Sector 49 and Ram Darbar. Out of these, 1,024 flats are in Sector 49, 1,120 in Sector 38 (West) and 576 in Ram Darbar. The construction of this first phase is likely to be completed by the end of this year.

The project, coming up at an estimated cost of Rs 1,238 crore, is supported under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The scheme aims to provide one-room flat, with a toilet and kitchen, to nearly 26,000 slum families in 18 notified slum colonies in the city on license fee basis. With the rehabilitation, about 192 acres of land, encroached by the homeless at present, are expected to be released for commercial, residential or institutional purposes.

While the Administration has already identified eight locations on an estimated land of around 450 acres, it is yet to acquire land in Mauli Jagran and Maloya where slum-dwellers have been temporarily settled by the Estate Office. Construction can only commence here once the site is handed over to the CHB. The work here comes under the second phase of the project and 1, 691 and 3,648 units will be built under it in Mauli Jagran II and Maloya II respectively.

The Board has invited already tenders for these two locations but is yet to finalise them.

For the construction of 8,896 units in Maloya and 8,448 units at Dhanas, land measuring 166 acres and 162.5 acres respectively was earmarked. The land in Dhanas has already been handed over to the CHB while that in Maloya is under acquisition. Moreover, construction of 320 small flats at Mauli Jagran cannot be started till the site is cleared of slums.

According to the CHB guidelines, all families, whose name appeared in the biometric survey conducted by the Administration in March 2006 and in the voter list for 2006 and in the voter list of the year in which allotment is made, are eligible for the units.