Maharashtra Has Hardly Completed Any Homes Under PM’s Housing For All Plan

Maharashtra didn't complete a single house under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's housing for all scheme in urban areas and met less than 2 percent of the annual target in rural areas, highlighting the slow pace of progress.

Of the 1.97 lakh houses to be built in cities in the year ended March, not one was completed and 30,000 are under construction, according to the state Housing Department. In rural areas, only 2,374 of the 1.5 lakh targeted houses were completed.

Maharashtra accounts for 19 percent of the total homes to be built in rural areas and 6 percent of the nationwide target for cities. About 3.39 lakh of the approved 40.62 lakh homes were completed across the country under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban as of March 5, according to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs' website. Another 44 percent are under construction. The completed houses are just 2 percent of the overall target of 2 crore houses to be built by 2022.

Implementation of the rural scheme is better. Against the target of 51 lakh houses for 2017-18, 34.99 lakh, or 68.7 percent, were completed in the last financial year.

PMAY In Numbers

Urban (Rolled Out In 2015)

• The nationwide target: two crore homes by 2022.
• In Maharashtra: 19.40 lakh by 2022
• Central aid to Maharashtra: Rs 1,125 crore in 2017-18

Rural (Rolled Out In November 2016)

• The nationwide target: one crore homes by March 2019.
• Target for Maharashtra: 11 lakh by 2022
• The state target for 2017-18: 1,50,934
• Completed 2,374
• Under construction: 1.39 lakh

The challenge is acquiring land and verifying beneficiaries which is causing delays, a senior official from Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority, the nodal agency for implementation in the state, said requesting anonymity. It's an ambitious target, he said. For each of these houses, a completion target of 18-24 months is expected. So, implementation will pick up pace this year, he said.

Officially, the Housing Department was yet to respond to BloombergQuint's emailed queries.

The scheme was launched to provide houses to all economically backward and lower income group families by 2022, coinciding with 75th year of independence. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin aims at providing aid to convert mud-and-thatch houses in rural areas into brick and cement homes.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban, according to its website, offers rehabilitation of slum dwellers using land as a resource through private participation; credit-linked subsidy; affordable housing in partnership; subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement.