A first moderately priced rental house is to come into operation from next month at Dhobighat. The house will have 24 separate rooms with attached kitchen and toilet and will cost Rs 3000, said Shama Bajra, project coordinator of Lumanti, the organization that is building the four storey building to provide rental service in the Valley. [break]
“An increasing trend of designing a flat system house has created a rent problem for those who want a small space at affordable rate,” she said. The safety and hygiene have been given high priority at the rental home. Sophisticated toilets and bathrooms and a well designed emergency exit doors would also be guaranteed to the tenants, she claimed.
The organization has opened booking and great many people have already shown interest in the rental home. “In a survey we conducted to study the viability of rental houses in the Valley, we found that many people feel victimized by their landlords and are looking for affordable rooms to rent,” she said. Lumanti has invested Rs 15 million on the building and the 9 annas of land in which it stands.
It is planning to purchase a plot to establish a rental colony at Dhobighat which will come in operation within a few years, she added. Each house would be accommodating 30 to 35 families. The project is being conducted in coordination of Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City which has finalized the designs and checked the earthquake resistance of the building.
Lumanti, an organization which has been advocating the water and sanitation and rights to settlements for the people living below the poverty line, has introduced the concept for the first time in country, said Bajra.
The Central Bureau of Statistics projects that 80,000 people enter the Valley every year for different purposes. Among them, 50,000 students come here for higher studies after their SLC exams. At the same time, the officials at Kathmandu Metropolitan City say that there has been a sharp decline in construction work following the down fall of real estate business in the Valley. A few years ago, KMC registered 5,000 new constructions which have now dropped to 3,000. Similarly, construction of new apartments was not recorded last fiscal year and in the current fiscal year.
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