Indiramma towers for four more cities: G+5 flats planned in Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Nalgonda

The Telangana government will take its Indiramma towers, the ground-plus-five apartment blocks it is building for low-income families in Hyderabad, to the municipal corporations of Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Nalgonda. Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who holds the revenue and housing portfolios, made the announcement on Wednesday, 4 November, and said the notification for the four cities would be issued before Deepavali.

He spoke at the Medchal-Malkajgiri collectorate after reviewing revenue, registration and housing matters with legislators and officials of the erstwhile Ranga Reddy district. IT Minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu, who is in charge of the district, joined him.

About 480 flats in each city

Housing officials have started preparing for roughly 480 flats in each of the four corporations, the same size as every tower project in Hyderabad. The government has sanctioned one lakh flats for low-income groups in the capital’s core urban region. In the first round, towers of 480 flats each are being built in 16 Assembly constituencies, including Kukatpally, Khairatabad, Serilingampally, Malakpet and Rajendranagar, where beneficiaries have been chosen, tenders awarded and work started. Sites are still to be identified in Uppal, Jubilee Hills, Charminar, Yakutpura and Secunderabad. Ponguleti said families would celebrate Bonalu in the Hyderabad towers next year.

2.21 lakh rural houses complete

In villages and towns, the scheme gives Rs 5 lakh to beneficiaries who own a plot to build their own house. Out of 4.5 lakh houses sanctioned in the first phase, 2,21,500 are finished and families have moved in, while another 1.9 lakh are at various stages of construction. A second phase of 2.5 lakh houses has also been sanctioned.

The minister said Rs 22,500 crore had been released so far despite the strain on the state’s finances, and that the Rs 40,000 crore housing programme would not be stopped. Instalments go straight into beneficiaries’ bank accounts every Monday, he said.

The two ministers also released a poster for “Maa Indiramma Intlo Deepavali”, a call to mark the festival in the new homes. Collectors, housing officials, local representatives and members of the Indiramma committees have been asked to visit families who have completed their houses and join them for Deepavali, the same deadline the government has set itself for the notification in the four cities.