INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT IS KEY TO THE SUCCESS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING

It is a sheer irony that on one hand, large number of poor people are
either homeless or are forced to live in slums and on the other hand,
homes built for the poor by the government, lie vacant. The available
statistics suggest that in Delhi alone, around 26000 flats, out of a
total of 28000 built for the poor, remain unoccupied. In Bawana area
of Delhi, only around 15 percent of the total of about 1900 flats
built for the poor families, have been occupied.

Urban planners attribute this phenomenon to the absence of proper
social infrastructure in the form of educational institutes, health
facilities and shopping complexes. According to experts of  World
Resources Institute, the connectivity deficit has a lot to do with
this. Poor people working in the cities, find it difficult to live in
urban suburbs or extension of cities   and prefer to live even in city
slums, in the absence of proper transportation, especially mass rapid
transport system.