While Goa Housing Board (GHB) isn’t an ideal option to those hunting for housing with a thin budget, it does have a few projects that are either on the verge of completion or completed. About 200 flats at five places will be auctioned in a few months.
Goa Housing Board chairman Subhash Shirodkar told on Tuesday that their projects at Sancoale, Curti-Ponda, Rumdamol, Farmagudi and Madel-Tivim are set to be completed shortly and will be opened for auction.
“The applicant needs to produce a residence certificate of 30 years besides meeting other criteria to be an eligible candidate for housing with the board,” Shirodkar said.
Besides flats, the Goa Housing Board will also throw open its plots at Canacona, Xeldem and Dhargal for auction this year.
In the last several years, Goa Housing Board has not acquired any land.
Shriodkar, however, said they still have land that was acquired many years ago where they plan to have projects with private investments. He was unable to spell out when these projects will take off.
The idea to invite private investors for Goa Housing Board projects was floated somewhere in 2017 soon after the BJP-led government was formed and Goa Forward Party (GFP) MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar was made minister of the housing department.
An official admitted that the projects planned as part of the private investments have not been pursued with required zeal, though it is one of the few options for Goa Housing Board to cater to the rising need of housing in the state.
“It will be difficult for the government to acquire fresh land with land prices going up. Also, the government cannot pay meagre compensation to acquire land from people like it used to decades ago,” an officer aware of government’s land acquisition said.
In 2016, Goa government notified a new land acquisition policy to acquire land for public projects on a priority basis. Notified as the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, it provides for procurement of land by way of a deed of conveyance.
