Tata Housing Aiming to Help

What the Tata Group has done with the launch with the Nano (India’s cheapest car), it now intends to do with its ‘Shubh Griha’ project. This project, launched by the Tata Housing Development, aims to provide ultra low cost housing which would range from 283 to 465 square feet and will be priced in between Rs. 390,000 and Rs. 670,000.

Tata Housing’s managing director, Brotin Banerjee, said that the company intends to show to the world that even an initiative launched by a private sector company which is aiming at the pyramid’s bottom can also make money in the process. The project is particularly keeping in view the large number of immigrants that travel to Mumbai from villages all across India and end up living in slums.

As per calculations made by Tata Housing, it would need to put up around 24 million homes if it aims to house all of Mumbai’s slum dwellers. When it comes to slums in Indian cities, Mumbai is amongst the worst affected, with close to 60% of its population living in slums.

However, not all slum dwellers are destitute, keeping in mind India’s local measures. As per statistics released by Tata, around 180 million households in the country have an average annual income in between Rs. 90,000 and Rs. 200,000.
Tata’s Shubh Griha project, loosely translated into ‘Auspicious Homes’ in Mumbai’s Boisar region is to come with toilets, plumbing and electrical fittings before the houses are made available to the residents.

These homes, with around 3,000 units in all, are targeting families whose monthly incomes lie in between Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 10,000. The complex will also provide its residents with open spaces, a hospital, schools, a recreation centre, etc. The first phase of this project is to see its completion in 2011.