Cabinet clears Rs.60,000 cr for urban housing

Injecting a major booster to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY-Urban) plan, the Union Cabinet recently made a provision for funds by setting up Rs.60,000 crore National Urban Housing Fund (NUHF) to meet the fund requirement for building 1.2 crore affordable houses in urban areas across the country. The amount will be generated from non-budgetary resources, meaning the Housing ministry will borrow it from fund-raising entities such as HUDCO or tap the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), which has deposits of about Rs.1.2 lakh crore, said ministry sources. A committee will be constituted in the ministry to be chaired by the Joint Secretary/Mission Director PMAY(Urban) for operating and monitoring the NUHF. As a matter of fact, the Housing and Urban Affairs ministry requires about Rs.10,000 crore to meet the requirement of the current financial year. The Budget proposal provides for raising Rs.25,000 crore from extra budgetary support for 2018-19 and similar amount will be required for 2019-20 to ensure there is no fund crunch. The urban component of PMAY is in 4,320 cities and towns and the ministry has so far sanctioned 39.4 lakh houses under PMAY-Urban. Under Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), wherein housing for EWS / LIG / MIG beneficiaries is being sanctioned by the Banks / HFCs to the eligible beneficiaries under the PMAY(Urban), the responses have grown significantly.