Rooftops of houses built by under privileged sections should be given a better look

23 January, 2013

While travelling to some parts of interior India in South, North and Western regions, one aspect that caught my attention was the type of roofing done in many houses, which are home to many under-privileged sections of the society. Most of these roof tops of single-storied houses have cheap metal roofs like corrugated metal sheets or plastic sheets or water/rain resistant polythene covers and so on.

On top of many of these rooftops, different shapes of stones were laid; even used tyres and rusted wire mesh were also seen on these roof tops at some places. Obviously, these materials are kept on the roof tops to prevent them from getting blown up during natural wind storm or heavy rain like conditions. But looks wise all these roof tops give a shoddy picture.

It would be nice if some agency caring for the society takes up this issue and comes out with some good alternatives. One way of providing good roofing is to mass produce metal roofing which can last for many years with proper fixing and coating of paint. These metal roofings should be sold at highly subsidized rates which would encourage/induce people living in the above category of houses to buy these for installation or replacing the present ones. This move will not only help these houses to get good roofing but will also give them a better look.

Government can also consider giving subsidies to firms manufacturing the above to enable them to sell these products at very reasonable rates. Banks can also be requested to provide easy loans to consumers for buying these roof tops. Attaching importance to rooftops for the above category of houses will enhance the satisfaction quotient of these people.

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COMMENTS (1)

Guest

V Mohan

It is time India must recognise the fact that floor space index is a valuable space and therefore the country should use this space to optimal level, considering the demand for housing both in the present and in the future (short term, medium term and long term). With growing pressure for housing, demand for more and more land for usage from many quarters like more housing resulting in more demand for more commercial complexes and more demand for industrial units and so on (including other infrastructure projects). Therefore, to keep a proper balance between making land available for all these purposes and also giving good scope for "floor space index" to be optimally utilised should be the prime objective of all concerned including planners and action doers. Because, the availability of land would remain the same in the future whereas the need for developing the same would be felt more and more with each passing day - therefore floor space index assumes big significance for all concerned.