The Reserve Bank of India will continue providing a dedicated external commercial borrowing window for 'affordable housing' even in the current fiscal, a top central bank official has said.

The $1 billion ECB window for affordable housing will be continued this year as well, H.R. Khan, RBI Deputy Governor, said here on Thursday.

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on 'Housing: An engine for inclusive growth', organised by Asia Pacific Union for Housing Finance and National Housing Bank.

Khan also made it clear there was no proposal on the table to increase the ECB limit for affordable housing from the current level of $1 billion.

He said that the $1 billion ECB window was put in place in the latter part of last year and therefore was not utilised.

"There are small issues that are being sorted out and this year we will see to it that it is being utilised,” Khan said.

Earlier in his address at the international conference, Khan said caution has to be exercised in allowing ECB for affordable housing as housing does not generate foreign exchange.

"Proper due diligence has to be done to ensure that we don't get into any difficulty. We have to balance the requirement as well as the currency mismatches. We have to take a balanced approach,” he said.

Later, Khan told reporters that all applications will be routed through national housing bank who will scan the applications and see to it that really good fellows get access to this window.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in