By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 23, 2021: THE government has approved the construction of 56,368 houses under the Centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) scheme, said the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Tuesday.

The government has completed nearly 43 lakh houses while another 73 lakh homes have been grounded since PMAY-U's launch in 2015, the ministry said.

"Let us get into the mode of implementation and execution," said Mr Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA at the meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee on Monday. A total of 11 States and Union Territories (UTs) attended the meeting.

He urged them to ensure 100 per cent completion and delivery of PMAY-U houses and directed them to use the online mechanism (MIS) for proper implementation and monitoring of the mission.

The progress of Light House Projects (LHPs) and Demonstration Housing Projects (DHPs) was also reviewed.

The houses under LHPs are being constructed at Lucknow, Ranchi, Rajkot, Agartala, Chennai and Indore. To promote these LHP sites as 'Live Laboratories' for transfer of technology to the field, MoHUA initiated an online enrolment drive for 'technograhis' to encourage large scale citizen participation and create technical awareness, on-site learning, find ideas for solutions, experimentation and encouraging innovation.

The mission is also promoting women empowerment by allotting houses in the name of women beneficiaries or joint ownership, noted Mr Mishra.

MoHUA aims to provide pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries of urban India by 2022 by building around 1.12 crore homes, when the nation celebrates 75 years of Independence.