LAHORE, Apr 09  :  Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Friday said that Punjab has become the first province to start implementation on Prime Minister’s vision of providing roof to shelterless people by launching construction of 35,000 apartments project taken up jointly by Lahore Development Authority and Pakistan Housing Authority in LDA city.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony here, he said the foundation stone for the construction of 4000 apartments has been laid, wherein aspirants will be made owner of apartment in a duration of just one and a half year.

Out of these 4000 apartments, 2000 will be reserved for general public, while the rest of 2,000 will be reserved for employees of the federal, provincial government and LDA staff taking a monthly salary less than Rs. 50,000.

It will be a truly people-friendly project, CM Buzdar said, adding that only 10 percent down payment will have to be paid by the applicants while rest of the amount will be taken under installment plan of 5 to 20 years.

Standard of the housing scheme will not be less than a private housing society where underground electricity system will be installed, besides construction of a public park on an area of 333-kanal, he added.

Other facilities including Masjid, sports complex, model graveyard and cricket stadium will also be made available, said the Chief Minister, adding that LDA will be responsible for maintenance of the infrastructure.

Usman Buzdar said that the work was also underway for developing housing projects for low income strata in other districts as well.

Under Peri urban low cost housing project, places have been marked in 133 tehsils of the province, where in initial phase, upto 10,000 housing units would be constructed in 32 tehsils for low income people.

The government will provide subsidy of upto three lakh for each house and loans on easy terms as well, he said and added that this house will cost 1.1 million rupees in total which will be taken in easy monthly installments of around Rs. 10,000.

He said the provincial cabinet had already approved funds amounting to Rs 3 billion for developing infrastructure for this project.

The government was taking solid steps to provide housing facilities to low income strata, CM said and added that the government will fulfill every promise made with the people.