Bangalore cops get strong and sleek houses, made in 15 days

Head constable G Dasanna and traffic police constable Basavaraj V Halli have a reason to be happy.

On Sunday, they were the first to move into a pair of unique flats resistant to fire, flood, wind and earthquake.

The uniqueness of these flats does not end there. Prefabricated expanded polystyrene panels (EPS) were used in the construction of the low-cost houses, which were inaugurated by home minister R Ashoka in CAR south Adugodi police quarters.

Here, panels have replaced the standard brick-and-mortar construction, and reduced the time taken to build them and also the cost of the construction materials.

The house was built by five to six labourers by just fixing the EPS panels.

“We’ve plans to construct about 40,000 such house in the next five years. Police constables don’t have proper houses. We want to give them modern quarters so that they can live happily,” Ashoka, said.

The two pilot flats, built on ground and first floors, were constructed by the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation Ltd (KSPHC) jointly with Pearls MiiHome, Australia.

“Each flat consists of a kitchen, two bedrooms, a toilet, bathroom and hall. They are on first and ground floor. A family can stay on each floor comfortably,” said Hasina Yakub, manager, public relations, and coordinator of Fast Track Construction, KSPHC. 

Each flat measures 750 sq ft and costs about `11.25 lakh. It will have life of about 60 years to 65 years.

“The price of each flat per square feet comes to about `1,500 as we need to import EPS panels from Australia. But once these panels start getting manufactured in India, the cost per square feet will come down to Rs1,000,” said Madhava, superintending engineer, KSPHC.

Pranab Mohanty, joint commissioner of crime, was so impressed by the model flats that he expressed his desire to stay in such a flat.

Ananth Kumar, MP, said: “I had doubts whether a house made of EPS panels can resist the weight of about 20 people at a time. But from what I’ve seen today, it looks strong enough. I’m also surprised to note that after laying the basement, it takes only 15 days to build the flat.”