The housing ministry has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states to start building houses for the poor in urban areas. The government has set the target to provide houses to two crore families belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS) in urban areas by 2022.

The states that are likely to gain are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.Moreover, six other states --Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand -have agreed to implement six key reforms relating to clearances and approval for housing projects to accelerate their construction.

The Housing for All (Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna) was launched on June 25. “Getting states to agree to the condition and signing of agreements with the Centre are also encouraging indications. Fifteen states have signed the agreement,“ a housing ministry spokesperson said.

The mandatory reforms that form part of the MoAs including the doing away with the requirement of separate non-agricultural permission in case land falls in the residential zone earmarked in any city master plan and amending plans earmarking land for affordable housing. Another major reform is to do away with approvals below certain built up area or plot size for EWS and low income groups.

Under the urban housing mission, Centre will provide assistance in the range of Rs one lakh and Rs 2.30 lakh per house under different components including in-situ redevelopment of slums using land as resource, credit linked subsidy scheme, affordable housing in partnership and beneficiary led individual construction improvement.

Officials said the announcement of list of cities and towns under Smart City Mission, AMRUT and Housing for All shows how there is a “clear convergence“ of implementation of the three schemes. The nine states that have identified 305 cities, also account for 26 smart cities and 136 AMRUT cities.

Union housing minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “This convergence of urban schemes helps in better utilization of resources resulting in visible improvement in urban areas. I am glad that state governments are resorting to convergence based approach.“

Source: http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Housing-For-All-Centre-identifies-305-cities-towns-31082015008032