The civic body is considering a proposal to provide ‘special subsidy’ of Rs 15,000 per house for housing scheme for urban poor as the developers and non governmental organizations, which are responsible for the construction of these houses, have expressed their inability to complete the project due to cost escalation. A total of 4,000 units are to be constructed under the scheme, a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), which started in 2008. “The houses under the scheme may remain incomplete due to price rise and paucity of funds,” states the proposal. Nearly Rs 6 crore will have to be spent to make up for the cost escalation, it adds. The standing committee of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had in June given a two-month deadline to NGOs and contractors to build houses under the basic services for urban poor (BSUP) scheme in the city slums. The Republican Party of India (RPI) corporator Siddhartha Dhende and leader of the house in the PMC Subhash Jagtap came up with the proposal. The houses are being built jointly by the civic body, state and Union governments. Houses of 270 sq ft have been allotted to each occupant. Nearly Rs 3 lakh has been spent on each house. The owner has to pay 10% of the cost, while the author ities bear the remaining part of the expenses. “The input costs and labour charges have gone up drastically in the last few years resulting in a spike in building cost. More than half of the work is complete and the fate of remaining half is hanging in balance due to poor finances,” said Dhende, while speaking to TOI on Monday. As per PMC officials, a number of NGOs are working on these projects in Yerawada. The actual deadline for the completion of the projects was 2012. It has been delayed due to change in laws and rules. Even funds, which were expected from the Centre, failed to reach on time. “With non availability of funds and rising expenses, NGOs are expressing inability to complete the project. The NGOs started working on the project around five years back and are getting funds as per the rates which were prevailing then, which is, around Rs 800 per sq ft for the construction of the house. However, the current rate is around Rs 1,200 per sq ft,” he said.