The Commonwealth Games 2010 seem to have come as a blessing in disguise for the slum-dwellers in the capital. In the run-up to the Games the Delhi government is taking several steps to beautify the city and also to improve its infrastructure and public utilities, some notable ones being the launch of the Metro and the renovation and upgradation work being carried out at the airport, so as to bring Delhi at par with any other capital city in the world. As a part of this endeavor it has decided been to remove all the slums from the city by providing slum dwellers with concrete houses of their own.

The Urban Development Department had already written to the Centre seeking permission to construct 26,000 flats within one year and around 1.5 lakh flats over the next five years. The government plans to carry out this construction on gram sabha land in the outskirts of the city through the DSIIDC.

In fact, the Cooperatives Department had already registered four separate multi-storied group housing societies where slum-dwellers would be provided accommodation. Two of these slums would be removed from Chanakya Puri, where the cost of real estate is one of the highest in the country, while the other two would be removed from Kirti Nagar in west Delhi and from behind the Fleet Street at ITO.

According to the Cooperatives Minister there would be 150-200 members in each of these societies and the cost of each one-room flat would come to around Rs 1.55 lakhs. Of this amount, Rs 55,000 would be provided by the government (both central and state), Rs 10,000 by the beneficiary and Rs 75,000 by HUDCO through a soft loan of 20-years duration. The Delhi government was trying to convince the centre for the payment of the remaining amount.

The contract for the construction of these flats had been given to the DSIIDC as it had already demonstrated its competence in constructing low cost houses for the workers. The Minister also said that 41 slum clusters had already been identified for relocation and would soon be registered by the Cooperatives Department.

A six-member sub committee had also been constituted to locate the slum dwellers for rehabilitation in other such cooperative group housing societies to be registered in due course. 

For once this seems to be a win-win situation for everyone – the government, the residents of the city and most definitely the slum-dwellers, who would have never even dreamt of such good fortune coming their way. And they all have to thank the Commonwealth Games for that.