With more people moving to cities to partake in the economic growth feast, pressure is likely on dwelling space for which India needs to put together $60 billion to build housing facilities in urban areas."There is a shortage of 25 million houses in the urban areas and in order to fill this gap, there is a need of 60 billion dollars," Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission said, while addressing the concluding session of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Human Settlements here.He said not much efforts were made in providing services in the past 50 years to enable the nation to cope with growing urbanisation."However, a faster growth rate would mean that pressure would be there on the system to provide a more inclusive growth." Ahluwalia warned that the Asia-Pacific region was experiencing rapid growth and a larger number of countries joining this region would have to face increased urbanisation problem due to the pace of structural change.According to data compiled by the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, the country would face a shortage of 26.53 million dwelling units during the 11th Plan period, while in the next year the shortage has been estimated at 24.71 million.
