Ghaziabad revises PMAY target to 11,000 housing units
Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) annual target for construction of low-cost housing units under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) has been scaled down to 11,000 from its previous target of 20,000
Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) annual target for construction of low-cost housing units under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) has been scaled down to 11,000 from its previous target of 20,000.
Launched in June 2015, PMAY is a central government scheme to address urban housing shortage among low-income groups.
“There were previous revisions in the target, and it was about 20,000 till recently, which has now been scaled down to about 11,000 housing units at present. The construction is to be completed by 2022. The reason for scaling down the target is lesser number of beneficiaries available to seek PMAY houses. In case we get more beneficiaries, we will construct more such housing units in the future,” said Karuna Karunesh, vice-chairperson of the authority.
Officials said that in 2018 they received a target of constructing about 36000 such houses.
The authority’s town planning department said that of the 11,000 proposed units, about 3,000 are being constructed by private players while the rest have been taken up by the authority.
Earlier in February, the authority’s board had approved the cost of each PMAY housing unit from ₹4.5 lakh to ₹6 lakh. However, the new rates were applicable only for new housing units and not those already under construction.
The cost of ₹4.5 lakh was fixed under a government order on September 5, 2017. The Uttar Pradesh cabinet in March last year decided to revise the cost.
“At present, we have about 3,700 units which are under construction at six sites. The reduction in target was approved by the state administration. It was scaled down due to high land costs, besides lesser number of beneficiaries coming up,” said an officer from the authority’s town planning department, requesting anonymity.
The officials estimate that the cost of each unit under the PMAY was about ₹9-10 lakh to the authority, which also had to part with land.
“We have about 20,000 housing units which are available under low-cost housing schemes, apart from the PMAY. So, people coming from low-income groups have an option to take up houses available with the authority. We also faced issues where PMAY housing units were proposed outside city limits. So, beneficiaries were reluctant to purchase houses away from the city,” the vice-chairperson added.
