Antony assures parliamentary panel of completing housing project on time

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister A K Antony today assured a parliamentary committee that Married Accommodation Project ( MAP) for armed forces will be completed by 2018 and its various phases have been combined to catch up on lost time.

He also informed the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Married Accommodation Project that there is a shortage of 1,98,881 dwelling units and the tender process for the same has been completed.

"Antony explained that due to delay in implementation of Phase-II of the project, Phase-III and IV have been combined, to catch up with the time lost during Phase-II. The meeting was held to discuss on Military Engineering Service (MES) and MAP," an official in the Defence Ministry said here.

MAP was initiated after a study carried out by the three services and the Service Headquarters in 2001 identified the acute shortfall of accommodation for married officers and other ranks of armed forces.

In order to complete the project in a limited time-frame and to put the construction process on a fast track, the need was felt to create a dedicated agency and accordingly a Directorate of Married Accommodation Project was carved out of Military Engineering Service in 2002.

"The minister said that Phase-I covering 57,875 dwelling units is almost complete. Though Phase-II was approved in 2008, it could commence only in September 2010...He also assured the members that once the MAP gets completed, the satisfaction levels will improve significantly among the three services," the official added.

Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh, Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma and senior officials from the Defence Ministry and armed forces attended the meeting.