Sujoy Chaudhury                   chaudhurysujoy@hotmail.com

The Technology Systems Branch of Development Alternatives continues to provide technical support to the Building Materials and Services Bank (BMSB) at Chowduar , which has been officially registered as “ Ashraya Building Material Promotion and Services Limited” . Following the closure of the CARE reconstruction project, two separate projects had been initiated to allow for capacity building and consolidation of the BMSB. The first project supported by BMTPC and  CARE, with Development Alternatives as the project managers  was aimed at enhancing the technology options through the transfer of different technology packages . The construction of technology demonstration units was initiated with the construction of the X- Ray Block of the PHC at Adaspur, the second technology demonstration is the product display center at the BMSB itself, while a third , an Anganwadi Building will be completed by the end of February. This support has been very beneficial to the BMSB ,its product portfolio is diverse , infrastructure and internal technical capacities have been developed and the demonstration units are proving to be very useful in the promotion of cost effective and environment friendly technologies in rural Orissa.

Concurrent to the BMTPC support, additional support was provided by gtz India, Development Alternatives are the Technical and Management  backstoppers in this project called “ Orissa  Building center Project” This project emphasized on the creation of awareness amongst the local communities on appropriate technologies which provide resistance against cyclones and floods. The project also sought to provide employment opportunities to unemployed youth with emphasis on women amongst the local communities in the production, construction and marketing activities of the BMSB. This project has been successfully implemented by CORE, the facilitating NGO to the BMSB. Internal skills in management and production have been enhanced and about 45 people are employed directly at any given time in the production activities at the BMSB. Teams of trained artisans travel far and wide putting up houses with appropriate technologies and a team of youths have been trained in marketing. A strategy is being evolved  for setting up a distribution system. Today about 60 people or 60 families have their livelihoods dependent on the BMSB , about 500 houses using products from the BMSB has been built over the last couple of  years and the people involved are confident of future growth and success. The gtz project gets over in the month of January 2003 and an workshop is being conducted at Bhubaneswar  to strategize on replication of the model .

With the objective of designing solutions of delivery of rural housing, The Technology Systems Branch  has designed a delivery process of houses under the credit cum subsidy scheme of the GOI, this scheme is being implemented by the Orissa Cooperative Housing Cooperation ( OCHC). Under the scheme 15000 houses will be built ,with unit cost of each house being RS. 50,000.00 , out of this amount which will be provided by OCHC, RS. 40,000.00 will be the loan component to be paid over a period of 10 years at competitive rates, while RS. 10,000.00 is the grant component ( RS. 7,500.00 being the Centers contribution while RS. 2,500.00 is the States contribution). This scheme is expected to be launched very shortly. The beneficiaries under this scheme would be encouraged to build with appropriate technologies , delivery of products and services would be made through existing and new building centers throughout the state. Beneficiaries would associate themselves into Cooperative house building societies, one time cooperatives  which would provide the guarantee of the loan taken by the members of the society. The scheme looks at how CBO’s , CSO’s and other institutions can be mobilized to sensitize and mobilize existing community groups such as Mahila Samities and SHG’s  towards the benefits of the scheme .Development Alternatives is engaged in designing the technology package and the delivery system apart from the promotional and implementation systems. This is an unique opportunity to design and implement a process whereby all the stakeholders beginning from the local Government agencies to the individual in a community group ,to local non governmental  organizations, developmental agencies, bi- laterals and construction corporate are involved in the finance and delivery of rural housing. Incidentally the BMSB at Chowduar and CORE  and its network partners have a very important role to play in showcasing that the scheme works ,the first few hundred houses would be built in the district of Cuttack and between the BMSB and CORE, facilitated by the district administration ,delivery of finance and technology would have to be made and demonstrated. It is expected that technology transfer and capacity building would be required in high volumes and would  therefore  mean services for TARA Nirman Kendra and TARA.

CARE - Development Alternatives reconstruction project in Orissa ,called the “ASHRAYA” reconstruction project has been felicitated  as one of the ten Indian best habitat projects of the year 2000-2001. The recognition as part of the projects entry to  the Dubai Municipal Award was formally announced at the Habitat Day celebrations hosted by the ministry of Urban Development at New Delhi. The project has been specially mentioned for having built up local capacities and institutions  to manage housing processes.    q