The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) might be far behind its target, but its rural counterpart is bang on target.
As per officials at the rural development ministry, as against the target of 75.88 lakh houses allocated to the states under PMAY-Gramin during 2016-18, about 71.01 lakh beneficiaries have been registered, of which 63.72 lakh houses have been geo-tagged. Around 58.58 lakh beneficiaries have received sanctions for their houses, of which 53.20 lakh and 34.44 lakh beneficiaries have received first and second installments, respectively, as of December 14 for the construction of their houses.

As many as 11.57 lakh PMAY-G houses have been completed so far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) in November last year, setting a target of completing 1 crore new houses by March 31, 2019. “To meet the challenge of assisting PMAY (G) beneficiaries in construction of their homes by March 2018, the ministry, in partnership with the state governments, has taken many steps, including setting month-wise targets for completion of houses. The target for completion of 10 lakh houses by November, 2017, was achieved before the month ended,” the official said.

He added that the houses were completed within time mainly due to direct payment of financial assistance into the beneficiary accounts and by providing quality training of house construction to rural masons.
Under the housing scheme, the government envisages building affordable ‘pucca’ houses with water facility, sanitation and round-the-clock electricity supply. The payment for construction of the houses is directly transferred into the accounts of the beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, of the sanctioned 36 lakh houses under PMAY (Urban) till date since 2015, when the scheme was launched, about 15.65 lakh houses are being built, while 4.13 lakh houses have been constructed since the launch of the mission.
The government has set an ambitious target to construct as many as 12 lakh houses under the PMAY-U in 2017-18. In 2016-17, only 1.49 lakh houses were built under the scheme, against a target of 32.6 lakh units. It plans to construct 26 lakh houses in 2018-19, 26 lakh in 2019-20, 30 lakh
in 2020-21 and 29.8 lakh in 2021-22.