About 53% houses sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) have been completed so far, according to data provided by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry in replies to several questions in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The Centre’s flagship affordable urban housing scheme was launched in 2015, with the aim of constructing 1 crore houses for beneficiaries. Since then, the demand raised by states has increased, and as of March this year, which was the cut-off for sanctioning new units, 120.45 lakh houses were sanctioned.
The scheme’s deadline was extended from March 2022 to December 31, 2024 earlier this year.
In written replies, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Kaushal Kishore, said 106.01 lakh houses had been grounded — or foundation laid — so far, and 64.60 lakh had been completed as of November 28. This included 4.01 lakh grounded and 3.41 lakh houses completed under the UPA-era Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission that ended in 2014.
The remaining houses were in various stages of construction or grounding, Kishore said.
In the last three financial years and the current year, a total of Rs 1,12,522.29 crore of Central assistance had been sanctioned for states; out of that, Rs 78,068.90 crore had been released as of November 28.
In response to a question on the Smart Cities Mission, the MoS said work orders had been issued for 7,728 projects worth Rs 1.81 lakh crore, spread across 100 selected cities as on November 18. Out of those, 4,963 projects worth Rs 92,385 crore had been completed and the government had released Rs 34,087 crore for the selected 100 cities, which had utilised 89% of the amount.
