The rehabilitation of 104 economically weak families in the Santhom Colony, near Thoppumpady, has been plunged into uncertainty with the State government denying permission to build houses under the project using glass fibre-reinforced gypsum boards.
Mayor of the Corporation of Cochin Tony Chammani said on Wednesday that the government had denied permission to use gypsum boards for the proposed houses. But he said that the project had not been abandoned and that it would be reworked since the project had a validity period of another two years.
The Mayor said that the government had denied permission to use pre-fabricated gypsum panels after nearly a year of submitting the proposal.
The cost of the project has to be reworked since the government has insisted that conventional building materials must be used for building the proposed houses, he said.
The Corporation is looking for funding options, including money from Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The Mayor said that the Corporation had received a proposal from Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
The initial plan was to build the houses and related facilities under the Basic Services for Urban Poor programme funded by the Union government.
Chief Engineer, Public Works Department M. Pennamma said the Department had taken a positive view on the use of the new material for building the houses in Santhom Colony. The Department has also decided to use the material for the upcoming Government Medical College, Palakkad, she said.
C. P. Dinesh, Managing Director of FACT-RCF Building Products Limited which fabricates the glass fibre-reinforced panels said that Building Materials Technology Promotion Council under the Union government had approved the gypsum panels to be promoted. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had also set up a 15-member committee to explore the possibilities of promoting the building material.
Meanwhile, people in Santhom Colony, who had heaved a sigh of relief after the foundation for the project was laid, said that they would organise action to protest against the delay in the project implementation. Sheeba Santhosh, President of Punarjani, the commune of people in Santhom Colony, said that the plight of the people in the colony was bad without proper sanitation facilities.
