The government approved the construction of 16,488 houses in urban areas under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, taking the total number of houses sanctioned so far to over 1.13 crore, according to a statement.
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry said the decision was taken at a meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC), attended by officials from four states and union territories.
The houses approved in the meeting on Monday are proposed to be constructed under Beneficiary-Led Construction (BLC) and Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) verticals of PMAY-U.
“The demand for sanction has saturated in all States/UTs and work should be done expeditiously towards completing all the projects within stipulated time,” HUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said while addressing the participants.
In the statement, the ministry said that construction of PMAY-U houses is in various stages.
“With this, the total number of sanctioned houses under PMAY-U is now 113.06 lakh; of which 85.65 lakh have been grounded for construction and more than 51 lakh have been completed and delivered to the beneficiaries,” it stated.
According to the statement, the secretary also urged states and union territories to participate enthusiastically in ‘PMAY(U) Awards -100 Days Challenge’.
“Our major focus should be how can states/UTs make their cities saturated. Completion of projects should be aimed at,” the statement quoted him as saying.
Talking about Light House Projects (LHPs), Mishra said that states and union territories should encourage registration of stakeholders as “Technograhis” in large numbers so that they get to learn about globally innovative technologies and adapt their use in Indian context.