Gargee Das

UH4000

In the studio, the housing strategy of city Vadodara has been studied to improve access to affordable and decent shelter for all income groups. By household survey, we came across that in Vadodara there is housing unaffordability as per the specifics of local land and labour markets. Issues such as inadequate delivery of serviced land in the periphery of the cities, stamp duty etc. impose additional time and cost on the price of housing units. As consequence markets are unable to provide units below a certain price range. On the other hand, government attempts to directly provide for poor urban households living in substandard and informal housing, through policies and programs which do not really reach the intended beneficiaries as they are often ill-conceived, straightjacketed formulations at the state and national level rather than at the local level. Hence large sections of households, despite considerable but ill-conceived provisionary support of the government continue to live in substandard, unsafe and unhygienic housing for human habitation. 
The portfolio will mainly focus on the regulatory and financial support for enhancement or redevelopment of formal substandard units that are not catered by the free market.