Kaduna state government has planned to build 3,000 houses before the end of June, this year.
The Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Country Planning, Alhaji Abdul-Salam Baba-Ahmed, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Blueprint in Zaria.
Baba-Ahmed said 1, 000 houses would be built in each of the three Senatorial Districts through Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
He said: “Theses houses will be built in Kaduna, Zaria and Kafanchan and very soon construction of 1,000 houses in Zaria will commence alongside other zones.
“We have just got approval for Zaria and it will be due to commence as soon as possible. We want to build an extension of new Zaria. That is to have more layouts by expanding the town to become more efficient where it will contain all sought of new houses.”
On target beneficiaries, the commissioner said they were divided into two categories of civil servants and the general public.
“For civil servants, it will be owner-occupier, where a civil servant will stay in the house and the money will be deducted from his salary on a monthly basis and if he retires, the money will be deducted from his gratuity.”
Commenting on the demolition exercise at Kaduna Millennium City
(Haying-Danbushiya), which left many people homeless, Baba-Ahmed said government had already acquired the land from its original owners and paid them compensation.
“The land belongs to the government and it had been announcing on television, newspapers and radio that people should not buy or sale land in the area, but all to the deaf ear. But despite that people are continuously encroaching the land. However, government had no alternative than to reclaim its land and properly reallocate it to people.”