India’s flagship affordable housing scheme – the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – has been allocated ₹48,000 crore, across the urban and rural categories put together, in Budget 2022-23.

Of this, ₹28,000 crore is allocated for the PMAY (urban) and the remaining ₹20,000 crore will be for PMAY (Gramin).

“In 2022-23, 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified eligible beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana, both rural and urban. ₹48,000 crore is allocated for this purpose,” Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget.

In 2021-22, the PMAY- Urban had a Budget Estimate of ₹8,000 crore; while the revised estimate for the fiscal was ₹27,000 crore. For the PMAY – Rural, the Budget Estimate in 2021-22 was ₹19,500 crore against which the revenue estimate was ₹20,000 crore.

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According to her, the central government will work with the State governments for reduction of time required for all land and construction related approvals, “for promoting affordable housing for middle class and economically weaker sections in urban areas”.

“We shall also work with the financial sector regulators to expand access to capital along with reduction in cost of intermediation,” Sitharaman added.

Higher allocation

As per the Economic Survey released on January 31, aroud 4.49 homes have come up under the Pradhan Mantria Awas Yojana – Urban till December. On the other hand, in the PMAY- Grameen scheme, till January 18, 2022, around 2.17 crore homes have been sanctioned and 1.69 crore homes have been completed. Landless beneficiaries are accorded the highest priority in the allotment of houses.

Along with increasing allocation for the PMAY schemes, the Finance Minister also announced an allocation of ₹60,000 crore to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under the ‘Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal’ (tap-water in every household) scheme. The current coverage of Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal is 8.7 crore, of which 5.5 crore households were provided tap water in last 2 years itself.

According to Harshvardhan Patodia, President, CREDAI, the government has recognised importance of urban housing, in the backdrop of increasing pace of urbanisation.

“The government will emphasise better planning for sustainable living in Tier-II and -III cities. In this regard, investment in urban sector capacity building, modernisation of building bye-laws & mass transit projects on the hub and spoke model will be executed,” he said.

Urban planning rehaul

The Finance Minister, during the course of her Budget speech, said, “urban planning cannot continue with a business-as-usual approach” and accordingly announced the setting up of a high-level committee “of reputed urban planners, urban economists and institutions”. This committee will make recommendations on urban sector policies, capacity building, planning, implementation and governance.

“For urban capacity building, support will be provided to the States. Modernisation of building bye-laws, Town Planning Schemes (TPS), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) will be implemented,” she said adding that the idea would be to “facilitate reforms for people to live and work closer to mass transit systems”.

For developing India specific knowledge in urban planning and design, and to deliver certified training in these areas, “up to five existing academic institutions in different regions will be designated as centers of excellence”.

These centres will be provided endowment funds of ₹250 crore each.

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