Cabinet okays Rs 60K cr for urban housing

To boost Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY-Urban), the Narendra Modi Government on Tuesday set up a Rs 60,000 crore National Urban Housing Fund (NUHF) to meet the fund requirement for building 1.2 crore affordable houses in urban areas.  The amount will be raised from non-budgetary resources, meaning the housing Ministry will borrow it from fund-raising entities such as HUDCO or tap the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), which has deposits of about Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

According to MoHUA, a committee will be constituted in the Ministry to be chaired by the JointSecretary/Mission Director (PMAY(Urban) to operationalise and monitor the NUHF. 

The housing and urban affairs Ministry requires about Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 crore to meet the requirement of the current financial year. The Budget proposal provides for raising Rs 25,000 crore from extra budgetary support for 2018-19 and similar amount will be required for 2019-20 to ensure there is no fund crunch.

The urban component of PMAY is in 4,320 cities and towns. The Ministry has so far sanctioned 39.4 lakh houses under PMAY-Urban.

As per Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs more than 17 lakh houses have been grounded and about five lakh houses have been completed. Under Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), wherein housing for EWS / LIG / MIG beneficiaries is being sanctioned by the Banks / HFCs to the eligible beneficiaries under the PMAY(Urban), the responses have grown significantly. Nearly 87,000 Housing Loans have been sanctioned in last 8 months under the Scheme and over 40,000 applications are under consideration for approval. The target is to cater to the demand of housing shortage of nearly 1.2 crore and make available housing to all by 2022, when the Country celebrates its 75th Anniversary of Independence.

NUHF will facilitate raising requisite funds in next four years so that flow of Central Assistance under different verticals i.e. Beneficiary Linked Construction (0BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership(AHP), In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) and Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) is sustained and construction of houses to address the gap in Urban Sector progresses smoothly.