Thursday, August 01, 2013: The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday allocated Rs 12600 million for the construction of 60,000 solar-powered green houses. The allocation was made under the phase three of a programme intended to provide houses to underprivileged people in the rural areas. The programme was launched by the AIADMK government that guaranteed a house in a 300sqft built-up area. Official release states that the sum has been allocated for the current fiscal year.
Due to rise in prices of construction material, the unit cost for each house was revised from Rs 180 million to Rs 210 million the cost covers Rs 30 million for the installation of solar panels. Around 60,000 houses were constructed during the year 2011-12 in the first phase of the scheme and the target of constructing another 60,000 houses is going to be achieved soon.
Each house comprises a living room, bedroom, kitchen, toilet and verandah in addition to rainwater harvesting system and five solar-powered compact fluorescent lamps. The scheme does not include land acquisition and the houses are therefore, either constructed in situ or on the land owned by the beneficiary somewhere else in the village panchayat.
A target of constructing 3,00,000 green houses within five years has been fixed by the CM.
