Govt announces ₹18,000-cr for urban housing scheme

The Union Finance Minister has announced ₹18,000 crore, an additional outlay for the urban housing scheme, to help complete real estate projects that remained incomplete due to a cash crunch. The amount would be provided over and above the Budget Estimates for 2020-21 for the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (Urban) through additional allocation and extra budgetary resources, and also over and above ₹8,000 crore already provided this year. The new initiative would help start work on 12 lakh housing units and complete 18 lakh houses; the move would also create 78 lakh new jobs and raise the demand for steel and cement. Announcing support for construction and infrastructure, the FM said that the Earnest Money Deposit (EMO) and performance security requirements will be relaxed for government tenders. Performance security on contracts will be reduced to 3 percent instead of 5 to 10 percent and would be extended to ongoing contracts, including public sector enterprises.