Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy participated in a video-conference, through which Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for six Light House Projects (LHPs) under the Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC) and distributed the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Urban and ASHA India awards on Friday.
Andhra Pradesh secured the third position in the ‘best performing State’ category. It received awards in ‘project monitoring tools’ and ‘innovative construction technology’ sections under the ‘special award’ category, and Visakhapatnam received an award under the ‘best performing municipal corporation’ category.
The Chief Minister received the awards from the Prime Minister virtually.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the Housing-for-All by 2022 scheme was of particular relevance to Andhra Pradesh as it was prone to cyclones, heavy rains and floods.
Distribution of pattas
He pointed out that the State took the lead in the implementation of PMAY (urban) and launched a special drive for providing house sites to 30.75 lakh poor people.
Under this programme, 68,677 acres of land, including 25,433 acres of government land, had been plotted and distributed to eligible poor families.
Over 16,000 housing colonies for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) were being developed in the urban areas, the Chief Minister said.
It was estimated that a sum of ₹12,410 crore was required for providing the infrastructure in the colonies. A total of 20.21 lakh houses had been sanctioned so far.
PM thanked
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy thanked the Prime Minister for encouraging the State in this regard and also congratulated him on launching the GHTC for identifying sustainable, eco-friendly and disaster-resilient technologies from around the world for housing and construction sector.
He said the State government travelled a great distance towards achieving the goal of Housing-for-All by distributing plots to all the eligible poor families and sanctioning houses to 67% of them.
Deputy Chief Minister Dharmana Krishnadas, Ministers Botcha Satyanarayana (municipal administration) and Ch. Ranganadha Raju (housing), MP V. Balashowry, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das and Chief Commissioner of Land Administration Neerabh Kumar Prasad were among those present.