Introduction

ESTATE DIRECTORATE is one of the Directorates under the Housing Department, Govt. of West Bengal. This Directorate was set up in 1966 with a view to solving the accommodation problem of the Economically Weaker Section of people, Lower and Middle Income Groups of people of society.

Till October, 2020, there were 89 PRHEs (Public Rental Housing Estates) comprising 20285 residential flats in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, North & South 24 Parganas, East & West Bardhaman under Estate Directorate.

In November, 2020 Estate Directorate became dissolved. 11 (eleven) local Prescribed Authorities were created vide Memo No. 576-586-H6 dated 16/10/2020 and 89 PRHEs are placed under control of those eleven local authorities (SDOs) including Estate Manager.

Since inception in 1966 Estate Directorate has been following the policy and instruction of the Government and performing accordingly. Processing applications for fresh allotment of flats, issuing allotment letters, handing over possession of vacant flats to allottees, collecting rent from tenants, serving various notices upon tenants/occupants, processing prayers from legal heirs for continuation to reside, processing prayers for shifting from one flat to another, processing prayers for temporary allotment for social and religious ceremonies of tenants, processing prayers for lease transfer of demised PRHE flats, processing matters involving court cases etc. are the main services/function of Estate Directorate.

Allotment

These PRHE flats have been allotted to the people of economically weaker section, people of lower and middle income groups of society, who do not have any residential accommodation of their own within the radius of 25 km from a PRHE.

Expenditure

A good amount of expenditure is being borne by the State Government for civil repair, painting, sweeping & cleaning and for payment of salary of the staff concerned with these PRHEs every year for extending the basic needs to those who are financially weak.

Rent Collection

Rent at a nominal rate (lowest rate Rs. 60/- per month) is collected by the government on-line.

The motto of the government is to provide relief to those people who suffer acute shortage of accommodation and face difficulty in paying high rent for private houses.

So, taking the basic needs of people into consideration the State Government has not revised for hiking the rate of rent of these PRHE flats for a long time.

Lease Matters

Under Estate Directorate about 500(Five Hundred) flats in7(seven) PRHEs have been leased out for a period of 999 years so far in the KMC area in favour of the tenants who accepted lease/ownership offers.

Conclusion

The Public Rental Housing Estates in several districts of West Bengal including Kolkata have been playing a pretty good role in providing the common people with better residential shelter at a low and affordable rate of rent for years together.