In a big boost to ‘housing for all’ initiative, construction of more than 1.68 lakh new houses has been approved by the Union government.

Construction of 168,606 new houses has been approved during the 52nd meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) or PMAY(U), which was attended by representatives of 14 states/Union Territories.

These houses are proposed to be built across the verticals of beneficiary led construction, affordable housing in partnership and in-situ slum redevelopment. The states also put in their proposals for revision of projects due to various issues such as, of land, topographical hazards, inter-city migration, change of preferences of verticals etc.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, a total of 1.1 crore houses has been approved under PMAY(U), of which more than 70 lakh houses are under various stages of construction and more than 41 lakh houses have been completed.

This was the second CSMC meeting during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is committed to provide pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries of urban India by 2022, when the country will celebrate its 75th Independence Day.

Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, who presided over the meeting, urged the states/UTs to strategise the expeditious implementation of PMAY(U) projects.

“The progress under the mission has been steady. We have to move towards completion of houses with all the basic physical and social infrastructure,” Mishra said, and added “the states/UTs shall focus on completion and delivery of houses to beneficiaries".

He further urged the states/UTs to expedite the implementation of the affordable rental housing complexes scheme.

"All the states/UTs may also learn from the six light house projects (LHPs) initiated in six cities, namely, Agartala (Tripura), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The technology can be replicated and scaled across the country for mass housing,” he said.

With the vision of ‘housing for all’, the emphasis has been to accelerate construction, completion and delivery of houses across the country within stipulated time under PMAY(U).

Ministry Of Housing

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