As many as 4,000 affordable rental housing units have become operational in Surat, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh, nearly 7000 are under different stages of construction and the government has recently sanctioned around 60,000 houses to be constructed by public /private agencies/organisations under the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) scheme, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said on August 19.
The Ministry of Urban Affairs has approved nearly 60,000 units under its ARHCs scheme in a meeting of the central monitoring committee held on Monday, Mishra said.
Assam has become the first Indian state to adopt the Model Tenancy Act, he said at a seminar on Inclusive Housing organised by the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
“Assam has become the first state and the first north eastern state to have passed the Act in the assembly. This will soon be implemented,” he said, adding rental housing is estimated to be a Rs 3 lakh crore worth market.
“Earlier, the focus of the past housing schemes was on ownership. Now we have brought in new era of rental housing for the first time after independence. The scheme addresses the Prime Minister’s vision of an ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ by creating a sustainable ecosystem of affordable rental housing solutions for urban migrants/poor in cities,” Mishra said.
ARHCs provide urban migrants/poor a dignified and affordable rental living with necessary civic amenities near their place of work, he said.
The Union Cabinet on July 8, 2020 had approved the affordable rental housing complexes (ARHCs) scheme for urban migrants employed in the industries, service sector and manufacturing sector close to their workplace in industrial as well as in non-formal urban sectors.
On the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), he said over one lakh affordable houses have so far been constructed in the northeast under the scheme.
He said Tripura is leading the chart in the region with the completion of 50 percent of the sanctioned number of houses while Assam has completed 23 percent of its share of the total 3.7 lakh houses sanctioned for all the northeastern states.
He said over 1.13 crore houses have been sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in urban areas across the country and 85 lakh houses have been grounded for construction.
"Beneficiaries have already moved in over 50 lakh housing units and we are all set to achieve the targets set under the scheme," he said.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) has launched an initiative Awas Par Samvaad to propel Housing for All as a universal theme, a housing ministry statement said.
Mishra said this is the first time that over 3.5 lakh people living in unauthorised colonies of Delhi have registered on a portal developed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to get land rights under the Pradhan Mantri Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi Awas Adhikar Yojana (PM-UDAY).
Mishra said the government has created such an ecosystem in the affordable housing sector where even the poor can dream of having their own house with all the basic facilities.
He said that keeping in view the needs of the urban labour, migrant workers and other poor who come to cities for a better future, “we should build houses with all the basic facilities for them so that there are no more slums and the existing slums give way to all-inclusive housing development. We need to gear up to realise the dream of Vision India @ 2047 by Hon’ble Prime Minister and embark upon City Beautiful Movement, i.e. slum-free new development and de-slumification through redevelopment.”
On RERA, he said with the implementation of the law, mistrust in the housing sector has been contained.
The secretary also spoke about the ministry’s initiative of bringing globally innovative technologies to the country for future use under the ambit of Global Housing Technology-India (GHTC-India) and the Light House Projects.
Others who attended the seminar included Surendra Kumar Bagde, additional secretary, MoHUA. PSN Rao, director, SPA also addressed the audience.
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