Almost 50% of affordable housing constructed under PMAY-Urban remains unoccupied

Under affordable housing in partnership, where private builders are incentivised to construct housing for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) within their projects, out of 15.65 lakh sanctioned houses, 9.01 lakh have been completed, the report noted. About 54 per cent of them (4.89 lakh) are occupied and 46 per cent (4.12 lakh) remain unoccupied. Similarly, under the in-situ slum redevelopment vertical, where housing is constructed on or near slums to rehabilitate the residents, 67,806 of 1.84 lakh sanctioned units have been completed and 70 per cent of them (47,510) are unoccupied, the report shows.

When asked about the reason for the unoccupied houses, “the Ministry, in a written reply stated that out of total 9.69 lakh completed houses under AHP and ISSR houses, about 5.1 lakh have already been occupied. Remaining houses are under process of occupancy…The broad reason for unoccupancy as informed by the States includes incomplete infrastructure, non-allotment of houses, unwillingness of allottees etc,” the report said.

The ministry said that as per the guidelines of the scheme, the respective state or Union Territory government is required to provide trunk infrastructure needed for these houses from their own resources. Trunk infrastructure is a combination of things needed to make a house liveable.

“The concerned State Governments have not been able to provide the same so far, resulting in unoccupancy of houses. Government of Telangana, having large number of unoccupancy of completed houses, has not been able to finalize the beneficiaries for allotment of houses,” the report said, citing the ministry’s reply.

The ministry told the committee that it was regularly following up with states and UTs to ensure that the basic infrastructure is provided to the residents of AHP and ISSR projects. “States/UTs have been advised to complete the basic infrastructure facilities in AHP/ISSR projects either through their own resources or by converging with other Central/State schemes so that they may be delivered/allotted to the eligible beneficiaries in time,” it said.

The committee, chaired by Telugu Desam Party MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, however, pushed the ministry to ensure that the basic infrastructure is created for the residents.

“While appreciating the fact that as per PMAY-U guidelines, the trunk infrastructure is to be provided by respective State/UT Governments from their own resources, the Committee are of the opinion that unoccupancy of completed houses for whatsoever reason will defeat the very purpose of the Mission. The Committee feel that it is the Ministry’s responsibility to closely monitor the progress of housing projects, address bottlenecks in construction and allotment processes and ensure effective coordination between Central and State authorities. The Committee, therefore, desire the Ministry to coordinate with States/UTs concerned for resolution of the issues so that the intended beneficiaries can occupy the houses at the earliest,” it said.

The ministry told the committee that it launched the PMAY-U 2.0 in September this year in light of the lessons learnt from the nine years of the PMAY-U. Under the PMAY-U 2.0, the target is to construct 1 crore additional urban homes in five years.