Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban - scope, coverage and construction of homes under the scheme

In June 2015, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Scheme which aims to provide housing for All by the year 2022. Launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), the aim of the PMAY scheme is to provide an affordable, concrete or “pucca” house for the urban poor, which includes slum dwellers and members of economically weaker sections, low and middle income groups (LIG and MIG). Such applicants can benefit from credit linked subsidies and become homeowners by paying subsidised interest rates against their home loan. Here’s all you need to know about the scope, coverage and construction of homes under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban.

Scope of the PMAY scheme

The “Housing for All” scheme for urban areas mission aims to provide central assistance to all implementing agencies through states and union territories to ensure housing is providing to everyone eligible under this scheme by the year 2022. Apart from the credit linked subsidy component of the scheme which is implemented as a central sector scheme, the entire PMAY mission is to be implemented as a scheme sponsored by the Centre.

Coverage and duration of the PMAY scheme

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for all urban scheme covers all 4041 statutory towns in India according to Census 2011. The main focus of the scheme are the 500 Class I cities that would be covered in the following three phases.

Phase 1: Completed between April 2015 and March 2017, phase 1 covered 100 Cities from several Indian states and union territories.

Phase 2: In the second phase of the scheme, lasting from April 2017 to March 2019, another 200 cities were covered.

Phase 3: The PMAY urban- housing for all scheme, in its final phase lasting from April 2019 to March 2022 will cover all the other remaining cities. Moreover, more cities may be included in earlier phases in case of resource backed demands from states and union territories.

Construction of homes under PMAY scheme

• Under the Pradhan Mantri Urban Awas Yojana scheme, houses of up-to 30 square meter carpet area will be constructed.
• Houses under the scheme come with basic infrastructure while the states and UTs have the flexibility to determine the sizes of houses. The basic civic amenities provided include water, sanitation, electricity, road, sewerage etc. The construction of toilets in each home is especially a major point of focus under this scheme.
• Urban Local Bodies are tasked with ensuring that every individual house under the credit linked interest subsidy as well as beneficiary led construction is provided with these aforementioned civic services. Also, the minimum size of the houses constructed under PMAY must conform to the standards listed in the National Building Code.
• In case the available land does not make it possible to build houses of the aforementioned minimum size specified by the National Building Code, then, with the consent of the beneficiary, a house of a reduced size may be constructed but only after approval from the State Level Sanctioning-cum-Monitoring (SLSMC) body.
• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana all urbanscheme also ensures that all houses are constructed and designed in a manner that structurally secures them against earthquakes, cyclones, floods, landslides and other natural calamities, as per the National Building Code and other similar codes under the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The PMAY scheme is one of the most futuristic schemes ever launched by the Government of India. It is launched with the aim of ensuring that the land resources are utilized to its utmost capacity and so that every Indian has a concrete home to live in. The idea is to eliminate slums, especially from urban areas and to provide every Indian, a permanent home to call their own.