Mysuru: The Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), in its bid to solve the growing land crunch and premium on land value, has decided to opt for a vertical growth model instead of developing plots. It has planned Group Housing projects where more than 2,000 housing clusters will be built.

MUDA has so far not ventured into housing projects and had confined itself to plot development and this is the first foray into Group Housing. There is a severe crunch of land and all the proposed new layouts including the ambitious Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar Layout, Swarna Jayanti Nagar Layout, Shanthaveri Gopalagowda Layout, R.T. Nagar Second Stage and Ballahalli Layout are stuck in a quagmire.

Some of these layouts have been planned in late 1990s and MUDA has still not completed the land acquisition process. Though it has finished the R.T. Nagar First Stage, it is stuck in other layouts.

Either there is unwillingness on the part of land owners to part with land (some of them are demanding high prices which is unviable for MUDA) or there is some or the other hurdle in bureaucratic or political level.

To wriggle out of this situation, MUDA has come up with Group Housing ideas. Apart from promoting vertical growth like in many other cities, Group Housing can accommodate maximum number of people in less space.

Land crunch

Of late, MUDA is facing severe shortage of land and people have accused it of failing on its basic function — to identify and provide land for residents of Mysuru. There are more than one-and-a-half lakh pending applications from site aspirants and the number of applicants has only increased.

To add to the MUDA woes, most of the lands on the city outskirts have been purchased by private developers and many layouts have already been formed. The inability to distribute sites has affected MUDA’s financial performance as revenue generation has hit a low.

No profit no loss scheme

The Group Housing scheme will provide shelter to over 2,000 families who have been waiting since years for a site. It will be built under ‘no profit no loss’ scheme without burdening both the MUDA and the house owners who will get affordable homes.

With pressure mounting on MUDA from aspirants who want to own houses here, MUDA has planned to construct over 2,000 houses under Affordable Group Housing Scheme at Vijayanagar First, Third and Fourth Stages and also in Dattagalli. 

Group Housing details

These housing complexes will have a ground floor and three floors and will be divided into Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Higher Income Group (HIG), Middle Income Group (MIG) and Lower Income Group (LIG). They will have one, two and three bedrooms depending on the categories. Applications are being issued for all the categories of houses to assess the demand.

As part of its “Demand Survey” to assess the number of aspirants, MUDA had distributed applications for Group Housing Scheme when D. Dhruvakumar was the MUDA Chairman in 2017. An overwhelming 82,000 people had applied for houses.

Stuck at bureaucracy level

 Though the Group Housing Projects worth Rs. 250 crore received ‘in principle’ approval from the State Government, it is stuck at the bureaucracy level. MUDA has been instructed not to proceed with the projects until the rules of allotment were finalised.

Now MUDA has sent the draft rules to the Government for approval and the Urban Development Department has the final say in this.

MUDA Commissioner P.S. Kantharaj said that the Department has sent the draft rules and the Detailed Project Report (DPR) to the Legal Department for its opinion. Once the project is cleared by the Urban Development Department, the scheme will be implemented, he said.

MUDA Chairman H.N. Vijay said that the Group Housing scheme will start as soon as the Government gives the approval and the DPR.