Chandigarh, June 27 -- Punjab governor and UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria on Thursday gave the go-ahead for the self-financing housing scheme in Sector 53 which had been hanging fire for the past several years. During a meeting here on Thursday, the administrator gave his nod to the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) to launch the scheme with revisedrates. With implementation of the revised collector rates in the city from April 1, the CHB has proposed a tentative revised cost of Rs.2.3 crore for a three-bedroom flat (HIG), an increase of 39.39% from the present tentative cost of Rs.1.65 crore. Similarly, the CHB has proposed tentative revised cost of Rs.1.97 crore for a two-bedroom flat (MIG), an increase of 40.71% from the present tentative cost of Rs.1.40 crore, and Rs.74 lakh for a two-room EWS flat, an increase of 34.34% from the present tentative cost of Rs.55 lakh. Many board members of the CHB were in favour of launching the scheme with the revised rates after revision of the collector rates. The CHB had received an overwhelming response to the demand survey for the proposed scheme, which was put on hold by the administration in 2023. As many as 7,468 applications were received under the survey. These included 5,081 applications for 3 BHK, 1,269 for 2BHK, and 1,118 for EWS flats. The 10-day survey was carried out from February 22 to March 3 this year. Nearly 68% applications were received for HIG units only. The CHB was considering launching the scheme only after receiving adequate response from interested eligible persons as well as obtaining requisite approvals. The proposed scheme has 192 HIG units, 100 MIG houses and 80 flats for economically weaker sections (EWS). The flats would be constructed on nearly nine acres in Sector 53. In August 2023, then UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had put on hold the scheme, deeming it unnecessary. This led to the cancellation of tenders worth Rs.200 crore issued on August 2, 2023, for the construction of 372 flats. The last CHB scheme was floated in 2016 for 200 two-bedroom flats in Sector 51....