The Bhutanese Leading the way.
If housing crunches is one problem, soaring rents are a nightmare. Everyone is on the lookout for a place that does not drain one’s pockets while the ones suffering the most are people from the low-income bracket.
However, these problems might be eased, with the National Housing Development Corporation Limited (NHDCL)’s primary mandate of providing housing to the lower income groups. The corporation is now looking into the construction of cost-effective housing wherever necessary and based on the availability of budget.
NHDCL has started with Phuentsholing and Gelephu and this will be continued for all the residential quarters in urban areas throughout the country.
For example, the Offtg. General Manager of the Real Estate Management Division, NHDCL , Dechen Wangdi, said the Pemaling housing colony which covers an area of 3.3 acres, will be registered under NHDCL.
The colony consists of five three-storey buildings with 12 units in each building, and was constructed the same time as the Changjiji Housing Colony (Phase-I) in the year 2001 by the government mainly to provide accommodation to civil servants earning less salary.
Meanwhile, the Phuentsholing municipality has allotted six acres of land to NHDCL, for constructing a housing colony but the transfer is still under process.
NHDCL has completed the survey for the land and the design has been handed over to the municipality office.
The tendering process is under way and constructions may start by March this year.
According to the Phuentsholing Mayor, Tshetem Dorji, this housing project will ease the housing crunch to some extent.
The estimated budget on the three buildings that will comprise 24 units sums up to Nu 48 million.
The housing colony will be located near Rabten Workshop on the way to the State Trading Corporation Bhutan Ltd.
NHDCL is taking over the residential buildings from urban areas and will manage it as the single apex management body.
Dechen Wangdi however said that the process was yet to be asserted and registered under NHDCL.
But the corporation will follow registration, land demarcation and taxation according to municipal norms.
“The mandates of a fully corporatized NHDCL will require the management and maintenance of all government housing and its colonies within the country but that will be excluding the residential quarters within the institute complex and the gewog centers,” he said.
Dechen Wangdi said NHDCL had to be a self-sustaining entity and revenue generation from the prevailing house rent collection would have to be above Nu 40
