Over 12 lakh affordable urban poor houses approved by government

Over 12 lakh affordable houses for urban poor have so far been approved with a total central assistance commitment of Rs 19,682 crore, the government told the Lok Sabha on Wedneday.

The houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) have been approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), launched in June last year. "Total of 12,27,088 affordable houses for EWS in urban areas have so far been approved with a total central assistance commitment of Rs 19,682 crore of which Rs 6,172 crore has been already released," Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply in the Lower House.

The Minister said construction of 2,21,373 houses has started of which 48,236 have been completed. The highest number of houses were approved for Andhra Pradesh (1,94,884), followed by Gujarat (1,20,782), West Bengal (1,22,915), Maharashtra (1,18,252), Karnataka (82,964), Telangana (81,920) and Madhya Pradesh (67,893). Bihar got nod for 63,017 houses, while Tamil Nadu for 61,711, Odisha for 46,798, and Tripura for 45,905. Gujarat leads in construction having so far built 59,515 affordable houses, followed by Tamil Nadu- 34,976; Madhya Pradesh- 29,467; West Bengal- 20,007; Bihar- 16,002; Rajasthan - 13,449; Jharkhand- 10,212; Karnataka- 9,335; Andhra Pradesh- 5,671; and Odisha- 4,105.

Under PMAY (Urban), central assistance of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.30 lakh each dwelling unit is provided to beneficiaries under the various components of the scheme.