With an aim to ease the pressure on its Plan fund, the city Corporation has applied for a loan of ₹131 crore from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for the implementation of the housing projects under the Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojana (PMAY) — Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) scheme.
An amount of ₹30 crore has already been credited from HUDCO, as the local body has presented utilisation details for the same, according to an official coordinating the implementation of the housing projects.
“Since the Corporation’s share for each beneficiary is ₹2 lakh under the PMAY-LIFE project, the Plan funds for each year might not be sufficient.
With an advance loan, we just need to pay the annual amount to HUDCO. The loan can be repaid in three-years-and-a-half to four years. Almost all the local bodies in the State have applied for these loans. The interest amount will be paid by the State government,” the official said.
₹4-lakh aid
As part of the original PMAY project envisaged by the Central government, each beneficiary will get ₹1.5 lakh.
In Kerala, the project has now been clubbed with the LIFE project, as per which they will be given ₹2 lakh as the Corporation’s share and ₹50,000 as the State government’s share, taking the total sum provided to the beneficiary to ₹4 lakh.
Across a total of six Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) that have been prepared till now, there are 9,027 beneficiaries under the PMAY-LIFE housing project under the city Corporation.
The first DPR had 1,370 beneficiaries while the second had 1,834, third 1,851, fourth 2,103, fifth 585, and sixth 1,284 beneficiaries.
The next DPR will be delayed as the results of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will have a bearing on the scheme.
Almost 6,000 beneficiaries have signed the agreement with the Corporation till now, while more than 1,500 houses have been completed.
The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has the highest number of beneficiaries under the scheme.