It is good to know that the Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) plans to bring rural areas under its home loan coverage for constructing modern multi-storied residential houses. The BHBFC project aims at providing accommodation to rural people at the same time saving arable land from misuse.
Cropland all over the country is disappearing at an alarming rate in the wake of population boom, unplanned housing and grabbing. The rate of decrease has been estimated at 1.0% of total farm land annually.
Experts say that if the present trend of indiscriminate use of agricultural land for housing and other purposes continues, soon there will be no place left for producing food.
As per plan, the state-owned BHBFC will provide loan at a cheaper lending rate for construction of 385 four-storey buildings in 22 village areas all over the country. The cost of the project has been estimated at Taka 3.13 billion.
A report quoting BHBFC MD published in the FE on November 18 last said that the proposed 385 multi-storey buildings will have 3,000 flats. Around 18,000 people will get accommodation in those modern buildings. This will save substantial areas of crop land from wastage, the BHBFC MD said.
The FE report further says that the project titled "Financial and Technical Assistance for Rural Housing of Bangladesh" has been finalised by the Banks and Financial Institutions Division of the ministry of finance (MoF) and sent to ministry of planning for its implementation.
An amount of Taka 1.0 million will be granted for building each of the units at a lending rate of 6.0% per year. Under the project, the loan will be repaid in 20 years.
The BHBFC MD has stated that a borrower would repay a total of Taka 1,720,800 in 20 years against the principal amount of loan. An amount of Taka 7170 has been fixed as monthly instalment for Taka 1.0 million.
The Taka 3.13 billion cost of the project will be provided by the government in phases in next five years. A five-member committee headed by BHBFC MD has been formed for implementation of the project to be coordinated by the seven zonal and 15 regional offices of the corporation.
Earlier, the government had announced a plan for building four new satellite townships in rural areas to check the influx of people to the capital. The satellite townships with high-rise buildings for rural families were planned to save arable land. But the government plan could not be implemented as yet.
It is, indeed, a gigantic task to ensure housing for millions of the country's homeless people. But our experience with the housing projects, both in public and private sectors, is far from satisfactory. Faulty construction has resulted in collapse and tilting of a large number of high-rise buildings in Dhaka city and elsewhere in the country due to lack of supervision by the authorities concerned.
Alone in Dhaka city 5500 under-construction buildings were found to have no approval by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) in 2011. However, the total number of such unauthorised buildings is not known.
At a time when such a situation is prevailing in country's construction sector, implementation of housing schemes needs proper assessment by neutral bodies of experts to maintain quality of works.
Before undertaking housing schemes, we should also try our best to save arable land. As the country is heavily dependent on agriculture, saving of farm land should be a priority.
On the other hand, as the principal objective of the rural housing is to stop influx of people to the capital and other cities, there must be scope for employment in their respective areas. Otherwise, they will be forced to crowd cities in search of livelihood.
The housing facility alone cannot stop them from going to cities if scope for employment is absent. Therefore, small and medium agro-based industries can be set up at district and upazila levels. Improvement of communication network through rivers, roads and railways will play an important role in this regard.
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