Ashrayan project keeps spreading smiles among homeless

Twenty years ago, Mominul Islam lost his house in Chilmari, Kurigram to river erosion. In search of fortune, he migrated from there to Savar's Shimulia union. Although it was no easy task, he managed to eke out a living working on other people's land.

But the good times are about to arrive for Mominul. As part of the Prime Minister's Office's Ashrayan project, he is set to have a house of his own again.

Along with Mominul, 65,474 families have been allotted houses in the second phase of the project, as a Mujib Borsho gift from the prime minister for the landless and homeless.

After the houses are completed, the PM will officially handover these semi-permanent houses, along with 200 acres of land, free of cost at a convenient time.

Mominul spoke to this correspondent while inspecting the project site at Gohailbari in Shimulia yesterday.

"I lost everything and came here 20 years ago," he said. "I was running my family by farming on other people's land. I cannot believe I'm about to get a house of my own, that too as a gift from the prime minister."

Sixty-four families will be provided single houses at the project site at Gohailbari. Twenty four of them have already been selected through lottery, while the rest are to be picked soon as well.

Each house will be brick-walled, roofed with colourful tin-shed. Floors will be made of concrete, while there will be two bedrooms with a tin canopy, a kitchen, a toilet and an open front porch.

Abu Saleh Mohammad Ferdous Khan, project director of Ashrayan-2, told The Daily Star that it will be the first and largest instance of providing free housing to so many people in the history of the world.

"Special care is being taken in land selection. Taking experience from the first two phases of the project, the houses are being made in even more sustainable manner," he said.

In the third phase, the cost of constructing each house has increased, with each set to cost Tk 259,500, compared to Tk 171,000 for the first phase and Tk 195,000 for the second.

However, as a result of being exempt from tax and VAT, the houses can be constructed at a cheaper price than the market price, said officials concerned.