The state housing department has set a target of constructing 7.27 lakh affordable houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(PMAY) by December 2024 — the Centre’s revised deadline.
A senior official of the department said major share of the houses would be in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) areas, besides Nagpur and Aurangabad regions. “Over 1 lakh units will be in Mumbai, followed by 50,000-60,000 houses in Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad regions,” he said.
The official said the Centre had given the state a revised target of constructing 7.27 lakh affordable housing units by December next year, of which 60% (4 lakh) were in different stages of construction. The state’s earlier target, set in 2015, was constructing 15.82 lakh units by 2022.
The target was revised after removing the slum rehabilitation projects under the scheme. The Centre also changed the deadline to 2024 to offset the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the project.
Confirming the target revision, another senior official of the state housing department said the state was expecting around Rs8,000 crore from the Centre as a part of the subsidy. The state’s share would be Rs5,000 crore. The Centre has already sanctioned Rs2,000 crore, according to the constructions. The state cleared Rs3,000 crore, he said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for over 6,400 affordable housing units in the PMRDA region. A little over 1,000 units were launched for Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic areas. PMRDA would construct nearly 6,452 units in the Moshi area under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) by 2025.
The state housing department said NGOs and banks would help beneficiaries through the Maharashtra Housing Corporation to procure houses. “NGOs appointed would help reach out to beneficiaries, while talks are on with banks for loans,” the official said.
The price of affordable housing units are in the range of Rs8-15 lakh, depending on the beneficiaries’ category — economic weaker section (EWS), low income group (LIG), middle income group (MIG) and high income group (HIG). According to the data, a total of 1,494 housing schemes would be developed in the state. Of them, a total of 6.35 lakh units would be constructed for EWS, 82,111 units for LIG, 8,950 units for MIG and 910 units for HIG segments.
Realty experts said the data used for the housing schemes was from the 2011 Census. “Studies have shown that urban housing shortage is increasing, but there is no reliable current data as the Census is yet to be carried out,” said an expert, who did not wish to be named.