The civic body has till now been able to provide service quarters to only 5,000 conservancy workers while for the remaining 22,000 there was no housing. Filling in this gap and meeting the urgency, the civic administration has decided to develop quarters and provide accommodation to the workers close to their area of work.

Currently, there are 3,422 tenements in city area against the requirement of 13,392 tenements, in western suburbs there are 622 tenements (as against 7896) and in the eastern suburbs there are 962 tenements (as against 6328). The total shortage of tenements is 22, 540.

To accommodate these workers of Solid Waste Management department in suitable buildings with infrastructure social amenities and open spaces, the BMC will carry out the redevelopment project on a total of 46.65 acres spread across 19 housing plots in the island city and 10 in western suburbs and nine in eastern suburbs.

Joint Municipal Commissioner (improvement) V Radha, who is heading the project, said these lands were underutilised and unplanned. “The cost of constructing 22,540 tenements will be Rs 870 crore but the market value at current rate of the plots is more than Rs 7,000 crore. So instead of involving private players and giving them incentives of TDR, we have decided to develop the quarters on our own,” she said.