Housing Program for low income groups in Pokhara was formally launched on 7th March 2013 organizing a grand event in Chauthe, Pokhara. The event was jointly organized by Lumanti Support Group for Shelter, Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City office, Laxmi Bank Limited and users committee of Pokhara.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest of the event Chief District Office of Kaski, Yadav Prasad Koirala said the innovative housing plan, focusing low income groups, in partnership with Lumanti Support Group for Shelter and Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City is now initiated. Construction plan adopting environment friendly and earthquake resistance technology is the appreciable idea. He further said, the easy access to credit for low income groups in low income rate from the commercial bank is even more appreciable. This housing program would definitely helps to upgrade the urban development works in Pokhara and every stakeholder should join hands together, he added.
Chief Executive Officer of Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City office Jhalak Ram Adhikari, on his remarks, said, apart from the incorporation of environment and technology friendly technology, the municipality is also planning to develop the community a disable friendly one. The project not only enhances the access to credit for the low income groups of Pokhara but it also supports the municipality in developing an inclusive model community, he said.
Prafulla Man Singh Pradhan, President of Lumanti expressed his happiness for the partnership of banking sector in housing the low income groups. He said, partnership with banking sector for housing low income groups is very encouraging for us. More and more bank is now interested for investing in this sector which is the positive sign, he added.
On the occasion, the chief guest of the event Chief District Officer, Chief Executive Officer of the Pokhara Metropolitan City and Program Manager of Lumanti Sama Vajra jointly lay the stone for the construction of model community house as the symbol for the initiation of the housing program in Pokhara. Bhimsen Thapa, a social worker from Pokhara and Dilip Raj Shrestha from Baba Foundation contributed fifty thousand rupees each for the construction of model community house in the site.
This year the project targets to house 279 low income families living in rental accommodation and have no property elsewhere and are living in rent since several years and have ability to purchase land. The target families are involved in decision-making on housing design. A team of community architects are working with the families helping them to analyse their housing situation and plan / design according to their needs
The maximum loan amount provided per borrower is NRs.4,00,000 through Laxmi Bank Limited which will be used for house construction. The repayment period is 7 years with interest rate at 8% per annum including all service charges of the bank. The modality of contribution is 50 percent from the bank and 50 percent from Lumanti as bank guarantee. The repaid amount will be used as revolving fund which will be managed by Lumanti. The fund can be allocated to support other housing improvement projects in the same or other cities after recovery.
Each new house will be constructed at low cost basis with more resistant to natural hazard in equal plot size. Thus, use of locally available materials will be promoted, with emphasis on disaster risk reduction through appropriate settlement planning and house design. Local people will be trained to construct houses and other basic amenities.
This project is community led process and will be a precedent-setting project. It is hoped that such a model will eventually be adopted and form the basis for the large scale and long term entry of formal finance institution/bank into low income housing project.
The project is being implemented under Community Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) program with support from Homeless International-UK. Low cost Housing program is on going in Kohalpur, Lekhnath and Tansen as well.
