New Delhi: Pursuing the goal of 'Housing for All' by 2022, the government proposes to build more than two crore houses across the country, including for slum-dwellers, under a massive programme to which final shape was given at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday.
Under the programme which will involve private participation, six lakh houses will be built in Delhi, 16 lakh in Mumbai and four lakh each in Chennai and Kolkata, a PMO statement said, adding these figures may go up after the demand assessment is completed.
The programme will begin with a baseline survey to assess the demand for such housing and identify resource requirements amid the Prime Minister's instruction that first priority should be to towns and cities along the banks of river Ganga and its tributaries.
"The programme proposes to build two crore houses across the nation by 2022. This would cover both slum housing and affordable housing for weaker sections. It will cover urban poor living in slums, urban homeless and new migrants to urban areas in search of shelter. It would cover metros, small towns and all urban areas," the statement said.
The government has set the goal of 'Housing for All' with water connection, toilet facilities and electricity to be achieved by 2022, by when the nation will complete 75 years of its Independence.
"The meeting was to finalise the contours of the 'Housing for All' mission, which is one of the priority commitments of the government," it said.
As a large portion of the programme is to be financed in a PPP mode by leveraging land and other resources in urban areas, the Prime Minister directed all the departments concerned to immediately finalise the financing models.
Modi emphasised at the meeting the need to ensure that there is no compromise in quality during the roll-out of this ambitious housing programme.
He also directed that safety concerns of specific areas, such as coastal zones, eco-sensitive zones and disaster-prone areas be factored into the planning process in cities.
Existing success stories and innovative technologies must be carefully studied so that the best practices can be adopted during the implementation of the scheme, the prime minister said at the meeting.
The programme involves an urban reform component to generate the resources and capacities for urban housing, a set of guidelines, an element of government support and a significant contribution from beneficiaries, in addition to bank financing, the PMO statement said.
"A large number of process improvements and policy changes are also inherent in the programme," it said.
It said that in pursuance of the commitment on housing, the prime minister has been holding a series of meetings to give shape to this vision.
In the last meeting on this held on December 22 last year, he had concurred with the basic elements of the programme and had asked for some fine-tuning and phasing of the proposals, the statement said.
The Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation recrafted its programme in alignment with the decisions in the meeting and presented the final design of the programme to the prime minister today.
Modi was briefed on the approach that is planned to be followed to meet this vast housing requirement. He was also given an overview of the delivery mechanisms envisaged at the central and state levels.
The meeting was attended by Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Urban Development, and senior officials.
