Indian Government has launched its much awaited and anticipated Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna under which the government aims to develop 20 million housing units for the urban poor in next 7 years
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) or Housing for all by 2022 is an ambitious housing scheme of Indian government which aims to create 20 million housing units for the urban poor in next 7 years.
With the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Indian government aims to provide affordable homes to all urban poor especially from the economically weaker section of the society by the year 2022. The government will be providing credit link subsidy to all the eligible beneficiaries of the scheme and housing loans at lower interest rates.
Introduction to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna
Under the scheme, affordable housing units will be constructed in the entire urban area of India which includes 4041 statutory towns. However, the scheme first will be implemented in the selected 500 cities across the nation for development of housing units.
The construction of housing units in the 500 cities will be carried out in the phased manner, i.e. 1st phase of the scheme will take place between April 2015 to March 2017 under which 100 cities will be selected based upon the capacity, population and requirement of housing units.
2nd Phase of the scheme will cover 200 more cities and will take place between April 2017 and March 2019. In the last or the third phase of the scheme, housing units will be constructed in rest of the cities between April 2019 and March 2022.
The selection of the cities will be done after a thorough assessment of the requirements of the housing units, capacity and the population growth.
Beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna
The main beneficiaries of the scheme will include women including widows, people belonging to scheduled casts or scheduled tribes, transgender families and economically weaker section (EWS) & lower income group (LIG) of the society.
Subsidy under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna
Under the scheme, a central grant of Rs. 1 Lakh will be provided to each eligible beneficiary. The loans under the scheme will be provided at interest rate of 6.5% to the EWS and LIG categories for a tenure of up to 15 years. The scheme will provide a central grant of Rs. 1.50 lakh to each beneficiary for promoting the affordable housing in the urban areas, providing the 35% of the units in the proposed project are earmarked for EWS.
Under the subsidy component four of the scheme, the government will also provide assistance of up to Rs. 1.50 Lakh to the poor who want to build their own house or undertake improvement to the existing house.
Two of the important things which will affect how the units are allotted to the beneficiaries are
Latest, innovative, eco-friendly and sustainable technologies will be used to construct the housing under the scheme.
