Govt sanctions 1 lakh houses worth Rs 4,200 crore for urban poor

The Centre has sanctioned construction of over one lakh more houses for the urban poor with an investment of Rs 4,200 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

With the latest sanctions, the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Ministry has approved construction of over 18.75 lakh houses for Economically Weaker Sections in 2,151 cities and towns across the country since the launch of the scheme in June 2015, an official release said.

In the latest round of sanctions, BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh got the highest number of 57,131 houses followed by Tamil Nadu, where 24,576 affordable houses got the Centre's nod.

Madhya Pradesh tops the overall list of states in getting approvals with over 2.66 lakh houses sanctioned under PMAY (Urban) with a total investment of Rs 18,283 crore. Tamil Nadu is second with over 2.52 lakh houses with a total project cost of Rs 9,112 crore.

Under the scheme, the Central assistance is provided to each beneficiary in the range of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.35 lakh.