FM holds review meet for residential projects to boost realty investment

The meeting was conducted with the secretaries of the ministries of Finance and senior management teams

Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday held a meeting to review the performance of the special window for affordable and mid-income housing (SWAMIH).

The meeting was conducted with the secretaries of the ministries of Finance and senior management team of the State Bank of India, SBI capital markets limited and SBICAPS ventures limited (SVL).

The fund has so far approved 81 projects with an investment of Rs 8767 crore, said the release.

The SWAMIH Investment Fund has progressed from a policy announcement to an operational initiative on the ground. It has approved 81 projects that will enable the completion of almost 60,000 homes across India.

The projects are spread across large cities such as the National Capital Region, Mumbai Metropilotan Region, Bengaluru, Chennai ad Pune. It also includes tier 2 cities including Karnal, Panipat, Lucknow, Surat, Dehradun, Kota and Nagpur, to name a few.

Among these projects, investments in 18 projects have been given the go-ahead and disbursement of funds has started in at least 7 of these projects.

It was also highlighted that activation of these construction sites by the Special Window would provide employment opportunities for various skilled and semi-skilled labourers.

Additionally, the fund is actively evaluating options to provide relief to 15,000 homebuyers in certain long-stalled projects which are pending before the Supreme Court for resolution.

The Finance Minister also lauded the efforts of the Special Window and said that both private and public Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) should see the special window as a stakeholder and lend their support to facilitate the early completion of stressed projects.

During the meeting, the Finance Minister asked the Department of Economic Affairs to closely follow the performance of the SWAMIH Investment Fund in order to ensure that the capital raised gets rapidly committed towards resolving stressed projects and remove any encumbrances that could arise in this process.

The Narendra Modi Cabinet in early November last year had approved the establishment of the Special Window fund. It was to provide debt financing on a priority basis for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the Affordable and Middle-Income Housing sector.