Ghaziabad: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath handed the first key of units built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY) at an event in the city on Friday. This is the first unit to be handed over since the scheme was announced 11 years ago.The scheme was announced in 2015 to provide affordable housing to people from economically disadvantaged sections of society. The cost of a flat was ascertained at Rs 6 lakh, out of which the Centre’s share was Rs 2.5 lakh, the state govt’s share was Rs 1 lakh, and a beneficiary needed to contribute Rs 2.5 lakh. To avail of the benefit, the annual family income should be less than Rs 4 lakh.The initial delay in Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) receiving funds from the central and state govts led to a holdup in the scheme. Moreover, there was a lack of infrastructure that was supposed to be developed by the power department and UP Jal Nigam, which contributed to the delay.But with the chief minister handing over the first unit, GDA has officially started to give possession of other flats. An official said, “We will soon start delivering units after the chief minister handed over keys to Krishna Kumar, one of the beneficiaries under our Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme.”In the Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme, GDA has constructed 856 units and in Newari, 528 units are ready. However, in three other housing schemes — Dasna, Noor Nagar and Pratap Vihar — a total of 2,112 units are yet to be completed.Apart from that, CM also inaugurated and laid foundation stones for a total of 90 projects worth Rs 868 crore. Some of the important projects whose foundation stones were laid included the Hapur Chungi flyover and the multi-level parking at Rajnagar District Centre.The Hapur Chungi roundabout sees the merging of traffic from all four directions — Kavinagar, RNE, DM office and towards the police line. The stretch is notorious for long snarls, and so a flyover has been planned to bypass the roundabout. “It will be constructed for Rs 125 crore and will enable the free flow of traffic to the police line side,” the official added. The stretch will be 1.2 km long and have four lanes.To beat the jam in the Rajnagar District Centre, GDA will construct a multi-level parking facility in the commercial hub.“The MLP will be constructed on PPP mode under Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Transfer (DBFOT) model, where a private entity is granted a concession to design, construct, fund and maintain the MLP and recover its cost through user fees, after which it will be transferred to the GDA, and the chief minister laid the foundation stone of this project as well,” said the official.Other projects include roundabouts, a 1.5 km Northern Peripheral Road and Hum-Tum Road, which along with the outer ring road will connect the city to Meerut.
