SPACE UTILIZATION AND COST REDUCTION MEASURES IN MIDDLE INCOME GROUP HOUSING AT BHOPAL

Abstract

Housing has become a perennial problem of our urban areas especially of large cities. The problem has become more aggravated because of the limited resources of both the Government and the individual. To ameliorate the housing conditions various social housing schemes have been introdu-ced and are being implemented through public sector agencies such as Housing Boards etc. Efforts although laudable suffer from erroneous approach. It is common knowledge that the cost of dwelling units under hire.purchase scheme is much beyond the capacity of each group 4 Middle Income Group (11/G) is no exception to it. The experience of State Housing Boards and also of HODCO is that dwelling units for a parti-cular category are occupied by the families in the next higher income group. This defeats the very purpose of directing the housing efforts based on income category. High cost of dwelling unite has created a paradoxical situ-ation in Bhopal that although there is demand for houses yet 40 to 50% of them remain vacant. The relevance of this to planning is that families' ability to pay constituikes the demand and type of dwelling units. In present circum-stances, substantial economy can be achieved through apace reduction with maximum utilisation of space with increased use efficiency and rationalisation of construction techniques and use of materials i.e. specification. An effort has been made to evolve rational apace standards and specification to effect economy in unit cost for MIG housing at Bhopal.