Chandigarh Housing Board launches fresh demand survey for Sector 53 scheme

Aiming to relaunch the self-financing general housing scheme with different categories of flats in Sector 53, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has decided to conduct a demand survey.

According to officials, the survey, to be conducted without any commitment, will help CHB determine demand for the flats, following which it will launch the scheme after obtaining requisite approvals.

The board plans to offer 372 flats in three categories — 192 three-bedroom HIG units, 100 two-bedroom MIG units and 80 two-bedroom EWS flats.

The applicants are required to deposit a fee of ₹10,000 for HIG and MIG units, and ₹5,000 EWS unit as confirmation of interest in the scheme, which will be adjusted in the earnest money deposit (EMD) when the scheme is launched. The applicants can deposit the fee at CHB office, Sector 9-D, from February 22 to March 3.

In case, the applicant decides not to participate further after the scheme’s launch, the whole amount will be forfeited.

On January 17, UT chief secretary Rajeev Verma, who is also the chairman of the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB), had asked the board officers to conduct a fresh demand survey for the scheme after they gave a presentation for the scheme’s revival. The board had last conducted a similar survey in 2018.

After carrying out the demand survey, a final presentation will be made before Punjab governor and UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria.

Notably, former UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had put the housing scheme on hold on August 3, 2023, citing there was no requirement for it. Consequently, CHB had cancelled the ₹200-crore tenders floated on August 2 for construction of 340 flats on nine acres.

But hopes for the scheme’s revival were rekindled after Kataria, in November 2024, instructed CHB to submit an updated presentation.

The scheme was previously also scrapped in 2018 due to poor response from buyers, primarily due to high flat prices. But it was revived in February 2023 with lower prices.

Under the revived plan, the board had planned to offer three-bedroom, two-bedroom and two-bedroom EWS flats for ₹1.65 crore, ₹1.40 crore and ₹55 lakh, respectively.

When the scheme was first floated in 2018, the three-bedroom flat was offered for as high as ₹1.8 crore, two-bedroom flat for ₹1.5 crore and one-bedroom flat for ₹95 lakh. But owing to the exorbitant rates, the response was lacklustre.

Established in 1976, with the primary objective of providing reasonably priced and good quality housing in Chandigarh, CHB had last successfully rolled out a housing scheme in 2016, when it had offered 200 two-bedroom flats in Sector 51 for ₹69 lakh each. With no successful project over the past eight years, the board is struggling to justify its existence.