Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Odisha government has unveiled a new housing program in Bhubaneswar with residences priced between ₹15 lakh and ₹50 lakh, especially targeting middle-income groups (MIG) and economically weaker sections (EWS) in an effort to meet the rising demand for affordable housing. The program’s goal is to help thousands of urban families who are battling with skyrocketing real estate costs become homeowners.
The new plan would comprise residences in many categories, including MIG, LIG, LIG-I, and MIG-II, and will be distributed through a lottery mechanism to guarantee transparency, according to Housing and Urban Development Minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra. To guarantee that only legitimate beneficiaries from the designated income categories may apply, certain eligibility requirements will be formulated.
With intentions to shortly expand similar projects to Cuttack, the dwelling units would be constructed on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. The plan’s initial phase will concentrate on metropolitan municipal regions. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model will be used to carry out the project in order to expedite development and guarantee financial sustainability. The government would work with cooperative banks to monitor the housing units and make it easier for the allottees to collect EMIs in order to simplify processes. The minister pointed out that in addition to owning, the state is also thinking about building rental properties to stop the spread of slum settlements, which have grown as a result of a shortage of reasonably priced housing choices.
Mahapatra also emphasized the government’s increased emphasis on the Town Planning (TP) program, which aims to provide planned infrastructure, such as street lighting, drainage, sewage systems, and roadways. Similar infrastructural improvements are soon to be planned for Puri, even though this work is already under way in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
