(PTI)
Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the scope of Centre’s flagship programme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana will be extended to private lands, a move aimed to give momentum to affordable housing in urban areas. The Narendra Modi government’s scheme, which aims to provide houses to all poor by 2022, is so far applicable to affordable housing projects built on lands belonging to the state or municipal corporations. “We will soon come out with supplementary guidelines for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) to enable affordable housing in partnership with private sector on private lands as well,” Naidu, who holds the portfolio of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA), told a press conference here. A senior official of the ministry said the move is based on the “large” number of requests the ministry had received from people who want to contruct affordable housing projects on their own lands. The HUPA ministry provides benefits under the various components of the scheme to the urban poor who apply for affordable houses in urban areas. Naidu said the government approved construction of over 20.25 lakh affordable houses in the last three years for the benefit of urban poor as against only 12.40 lakh approved during the 10 years of the UPA government. On improving the financial position of cities to carry out various infrastructure works, Naidu said Pune is all set to issue Municipal Bonds and will get listed with the BSE on June 22. He said another 17 cities have already appointed transaction advisors to do so.
