Concerned over the slow progress of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, the ministry of housing has asked states and union territories to submit proposals for construction of affordable houses at the earliest so that Narendra Modi’s government’s “Housing for All” scheme target in urban areas could be met by 2022 as envisaged.
During a meeting of the Central Screening and Monitoring Committee, Dr Nandita Chatterjee, secretary urged the states and UTs to expedite submission of proposals as per the latest demand assessment was undertaken by them.
A senior official said that during the CSMC meeting, the ministry has approved construction of 78,703 affordable houses for the benefit of economically weaker sections in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal with an investment of Rs 2,956.32 crore Central assistance of Rs.1,180.54 crore has been approved for construction of these houses.
With the approvals on Wednesday, the total number of houses approved for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), launched in June last year reached 15,48,846. Total investment approved for construction of these houses is Rs 82,708 crore with central assistance of Rs 21,125.36 crore.
Aiming to provide housing to common people across the country, the PM had launched the ‘Housing for All’ initiative in June 2015 with a target of construction of 2 crore houses by the year 2022 and about 4000 cities are covered under this scheme. In the first phase, the government has planned to construct one crore houses by the year 2019. However, the scheme is moving with slow pace because of lack of response by some states. So far, only a few thousands of houses have been constructed completely, said an official.
The ministry on Wednesday approved 52,336 more houses for EWS in Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs. 1,942.24 crore and central assistance of Rs. 785.04 crore. With this, the total number of houses approved for Tamil Nadu under PMAY(Urban) has gone up to Rs. 2,26,572 crore with an investment of Rs.8,144 crore and central assistance of Rs.3,461 crore.
The approvals given on Wednesday include 2,992 more houses for Chennai, 1,384 for Tiruppur, 1,088 for Madurai, 1,025 for Edanganasalai, 965 for Marakkanam, 931 for Kottakuppam, 905 for Coimbattore, 700 for Thanjavur, 450 for Namagiripettai and 437 for Vadalur.
Similarly, the ministry approved 5,082 houses for the benefit of urban poor in Kerala with an investment of Rs.152.46 crore and central assistance of Rs.76.23 crore. The total number of houses approved for the State so far has gone up to 22,467 with an investment of Rs.755 crore and central assistance of Rs.363 crore. Approval on Wednesday include; Kochi-1,528 houses, Nedumangadu-850, Manjeri-530, Chavakkad-355, Thiruvalla-361, Kayamkulam-305, Vatakara-270, Tripunithura-240, Mallapuram-229, Thalassery-210 and Thrissur-204.
Besides, West Bengal got 21,285 more houses with an investment of Rs 861.62 crore and central assistance of Rs 319.27 crore with this, the total number of affordable houses approved for the state under PMAY (Urban) has increased to 1,44,016 with an investment of Rs.5,835 crore and central assistance of Rs.2,168 crore.