CHB chairman Balbir Singh told Newsline that the aim of the Board was to reduce cost of housing in the city while maintaining the quality of housing.

With its thrust area on building houses on no-profit, no-loss basis, the CHB has already worked out on alternative building material, which will reduce the cost of construction considerably.

This includes use of sleek steel fabricated doors, windows and shutters, as used by the Delhi Development Authority. Besides, the earlier CI pipes used for drainage will be replaced with PVC pipes and other similar building material will also be replaced with low-cost material.

Singh added that the cost of dwelling units will be reduced by about 15 per cent with the use of low-cost material proposed now. He said the need to provide low-cost housing was felt in view of the large-scale housing activity proposed to take place in the Phase III sectors of the city, development in which is taking place at a fast pace.

CHB has already built 40,000 houses in the city. Many more housing projects and a number of other development projects are on hand, entailing a total project cost of over Rs 100 crore. These include the construction of Kalagram at Manimajra, infrastructure development of Sector 34 city sub-centre, infrastructure development of the new proposed bulk materials market in west of Sector 56, the 11-storey building complex in Sector 17 and the Sector 31 Exhibition Centre.

Hoping to receive more patronage from the Chandigarh Administration, which has entrusted many tasks to the CHB in the past, Singh disclosed that the CHB may also get another project for construction of rehabilitation schemes behind Sector 52, where the Administration proposed to allot land to it. It also proposes to complete its own building in Sector 9 soon.