A government-sponsored alternate investment fund (AIF), set up to extend last-mile funding to complete stuck housing projects, has sanctioned as much as Rs 22,972 crore for 243 projects, the finance ministry said on Friday. This will enable the completion of 1,41,045 houses across the country.

The fund, set up under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid Income Housing (SWAMIH), has accorded final approval to investments of Rs 9,743 crore in 99 projects, while preliminary nod was granted to 144 projects involving investments of Rs 13,229 crore.

The SWAMIH fund has already completed more than 1,500 housing units in the past six months, the ministry said. “It is currently on track to complete at least 10,000 homes every year in the next 3 to 4 years,” the ministry said in a tweet.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in May virtually handed over possession to 640 people after their stuck residential project — Rivali Park, located in suburban Mumbai — was completed. It was the first housing project to have received support from the SWAMIH fund.

On Friday, the fund witnessed another success story with the completion of the phase one of the Oxirich Sunskriti II project in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. Suresh Kozhikote, managing director at SBICAP Ventures, which has been entrusted by the government to manage this AIF, handed over keys to the homebuyers.

The SWAMIH fund was announced on November 6, 2019 and raised Rs 10,530 crore from 14 investors, including LIC, HDFC and SBI, when it declared its first close in December. The plan was to have a Rs 25,000-crore fund, with contribution of both the government and other investors.

The government had pledged a total of Rs 10,000 crore for this purpose, as it wanted to kick-start the investment cycle in residential projects and deliver houses to people who have been humbled by the double whammy of undelivered homes and regular repayment of home loans. It was also supposed to boost private consumption once houses are delivered.

The finance ministry had earlier said the projects being supported through the SWAMIH Fund were spread across a broad mix of markets, including metros and also Tier- 2 locations like Karnal, Panipat, Lucknow, Surat, Dehradun, Kota, Nagpur, Jaipur, Nashik, Vizag and Chandigarh.

According to an industry estimate in late 2019, as many as 4.58 lakh housing units were facing delayed delivery across 1,509 stalled projects.