Needed: 10 Lakh Homes A Month To Meet PM’s Rural Housing Target

Ten lakh houses a month: That’s what the government will have to build by March-end to meet its target of 51 lakh homes under the rural leg of the Prime Minister’s ‘Housing for All’ scheme.

Since the launch in November last year, the government took one year to build the first 10 lakh homes. The Ministry of Rural Development, according to a press statement, is confident of making that many homes in a month. It targets to reach 25 lakh houses by Jan. 31; 35 lakh by Feb. 28; and 51 lakh by March 31.

Pankaj Kapoor, founder and managing director at real estate research agency Liases Foras, said it’s a tall task but not unachievable. “As these are rural houses, complexities in construction are far less.” The houses could be at different stages of construction and beneficiaries may have been identified, he said.

The overall objective of the programme is to build one crore houses by the end of March 2019. About 57 lakh houses have been sanctioned in the first phase. Of these, 51.39 lakh beneficiaries have received the first instalment from the government. Of these, about 31 lakh homes are have reached roof-cast levels and another 16.05 lakh houses are nearing completion, the ministry said.

Prashant Kumar, principal secretary at the ministry, didn’t return BloombergQuint’s calls. The ministry didn’t immediately reply to emailed queries seeking clarity on how many of these houses can be completed by March 31.

States like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, which have the highest number of beneficiaries, are on course to complete the targets within the deadline, it said.

The beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin are identified by panchayats from among those living from below the poverty line based on the 2011 census and the government provides financial assistance. It can go up to Rs 1.5 lakh for every house, including the grants under the housing, rural jobs and toilet missions.

Typically, it takes anywhere between three and four months for a house to be completed, a senior official from the ministry who didn’t want to be identified said. But a 25-square-metre house could also be completed in 45 days, he said. The ministry’s Rural Masons Training programme will help fast-track the pace of building homes, the official said. There is no private participation in the programme, he said.

The scheme allows a beneficiary to select from a bouquet of designs. It’s aimed at providing brick-and-cement houses with basic amenities to families without homes or living in temporary structures by 2022. These houses are built with basic facilities such as LPG and electricity connections, drinking water and toilet.