Udupi: The government would be giving importance to the construction of multi-storeyed buildings to provide housing for poor people in urban areas of the State, Minister for Urban Development and Housing U.T. Khadar said here on Saturday.

He told presspersons that as per a survey nearly 40% of people in the State were now residing in towns and cities. This figure was likely to go up in the coming years. Hence, there was no point in providing housing to them in three-storey buildings, i.e. ground plus three floors. Instead the government had decided to construct multi-storeyed building comprising ground plus 14 floors.

An action plan had been formed for the development of Udupi city. It gave priority to providing drinking water, tourism and housing. An amount of ₹ 118 crore had been released under the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation for this purpose and administrative approval had been given. Tenders would be floated soon, he said.

As many as 500 houses would be built in the slum areas of Nittur, Kodankur, and Vishnumurthy Nagar in Udupi at a cost of ₹ 29 crore. The underground drainage works which were held up in Kundapur town would be started soon taking into confidence the local people.

A ₹ 60 crore plan had been approved for water supply management for Kaup town. Of the four Indira Canteens sanctioned for Udupi district, two had been constructed in Udupi, and two more would come up soon, he said.

On the criticism of BJP MLAs that nothing had been allotted to the coastal districts in the State Budget, Mr. Khader said that in the State Budget presented in February by the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, works worth nearly ₹ 400 crore had been sanctioned for the region. The BJP MLAs should think of completing them within the remaining eight months, he said.