Need to speed up work on urban housing
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the Modi 2.0 government has focused on providing affordable housing for all by 2022. However, till now only 26 lakh houses have been completed and as per data of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA), the current housing demand under PMAY (Urban) is 112 lakh. According to MOHUA, 83.69 lakh urban houses have been sanctioned this year, of which only 47 lakh houses are in some stages of construction.
In a reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 27 June, the MOHUA said: “The remaining number of houses would be sanctioned by March 2020 after the receipt of project-proposals from states/union Territories.” However, to meet the envisioned deadline, the ministry needs to speed up its pace as the implementation of this ambitious scheme in urban areas may not be as simple as it seems. For on-ground realisation of “Housing for All by 2022 vision”, there are challenges like lack of clear policy framework, high construction costs, unavailability of urban lands at reasonable prices. Besides these, the other problem is that all these challenges differ from state to state.
According to latest official data from MOHUA, out of Rs 51,546.89 crore that was released by the Centre to different state/uts, only Rs 32,877.63 crore was utilised till this year.
According to Anarock property consultant, “The vision of Housing for All by 2022 actually rests only on three main factors: release of government land, rapid development of support infrastructure, and streamlining of housing project approval process.”
Under PMAY, the government provides subsidies for building low-cost houses in rural and urban areas. However, scarcity of lands in urban areas has resulted in high property prices.
Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock property consultant, told The Sunday Guardian: “To overcome this, some portions of government land, including those held by Department of Heavy Industries, Indian Railways, Port Trusts, etc, can be released for affordable housing development scheme. Unlocking of such land will curtail property prices to a significant extent.”
He also said that use of seized benami properties, development of peripheral areas in proximity to employment hubs, streamlining the approval process and creating incentives for the participation of private players can effectively help in fulfillment the government’s vision of housing for all.
Started in 2015 by Modi 1.0 government, PMAY (Urban) comprises of four components: In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR); Affordable Housing through Credit-linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS); Affordable Housing Partnership (AHP) and assistance for Beneficiary-led individual house construction (BLC). Out of the 83.69 lakh houses sanctioned, 55.3% are under BLC, 31.6% are under AHP, 5.4% under ISSR and 7.8% are under CLSS component.
Under the scheme, the Central assistance can be availed under only one of the components by the beneficiaries. Under CLSS, for EWS/LIG component of PMAY (Urban), beneficiaries of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) having household annual income up to Rs 3 lakh and Lower Income Group (LIG) having household annual income between Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 6 lakh are eligible for an interest subsidy at the rate of 6.5% for housing loans up to Rs 6 lakh for a maximum tenure of 20 years.
In case of Middle Income Group (MIG), the scheme covers two income segments: annual household income between Rs 6, 00,001 to Rs 12 lakh (MIG-I) and annual household income between Rs 12,00,001 to Rs 18 lakh (MIG-II).
The interest subsidy under the scheme is available to beneficiaries of MIG-I category and MIG-II for loan amounts up to Rs 9 lakh and Rs 12 lakh respectively. The interest subsidies to them are at the rate of 4% and 3% respectively.