Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Shri Durga Shanker Mishra chaired the 57th meeting of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) held on 23rd December 2021 in New Delhi. Project proposals for 1.07 lakh houses were approved for construction from Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry and Uttarakhand under various verticals of PMAY(U). Secretary, MoHUA, also reviewed the progress of implementation of PMAY(U) in other States.
Presiding over the meeting, Secretary, MoHUA, discussed the issues pertaining to grounding and construction of houses in the States/UTs. He directed the State/UT officials to expedite construction of houses in their respective areas. He said that grounding should be the first responsibility of the States/UTs, followed by focus on 100% completion of grounded houses. States/UTs should also declare saturation of demand city by city.
Secretary, MoHUA also urged the LHP States to promote LHP technologies for their further replication in Indian context. He also directed the State officials to encourage students, professionals and other stakeholders to enrol as Technograhis so that more people could learn the use of these technologies. He requested all States/UTs to visit the LHP sites and study about it. Engineers, urban planners should be trained through the Technograhi module.
Total number of sanctioned houses under the Mission is now 1.14 crore; of which around 91 lakh have been grounded for construction and more than 53 lakh have been completed and delivered to the beneficiaries. The total investment under the Mission is ₹ 7.52 lakh crore, with Central Assistance of ₹ 1.85 lakh crore. So far, Central Assistance amounting to ₹ 1.14 lakh crore has already been released.
At the CSMC meeting, approval for construction of Demonstration Housing Projects (DHPs) at Dimapur in Nagaland and Kot Bhalwal in Jammu was also accorded. Both the projects will be built using new/alternate technologies under Technology Sub-Mission component of PMAY(U). DHPs are model housing projects that showcase field level application of the technology and are also used as a platform to impart on-site orientation, training to practitioners and students in the housing sector. So far, six DHPs have been completed and four are being constructed in different parts of the country.
The upcoming DHP in Dimapur will be used as working women’s hostel while the one in Kot Bhawal will serve as a sports hostel on rental basis with other infrastructure facilities and provisions.
The CSMC also approved a proposal for incubation support under ASHA-India for low cost Bamboo Housing Project submitted by IIT Kharagpur.
On this occasion, a Compendium on Indigenous Innovative Building Materials and Construction Technologies was also released by Secretary, MoHUA. It provides details about 84 technologies showcased during Indian Housing Technology Mela (IHTM) in Lucknow from 5th to 7th October 2021. It will serve as useful resource for dissemination of technologies for field level application, replication across the country. The compendium will help policymakers, public/private construction agencies, other stakeholders to select and adopt materials, technologies in future housing projects.
While releasing the Compendium, Secretary, MoHUA, asked the States/UTs to share it widely with construction agencies, engineers, architects for utilising these technologies for construction for the benefit of the housing sector.
Secretary, MoHUA, also reviewed the progress of Light House Projects (LHPs) in Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh). He directed the officials to complete the construction work within the stipulated time period.