Minimum enhancement of 9 sq.mt carpet area required under Urban Housing Mission Under Prime Ministers Awas Yojana (Urban), minimum addition of 9.0 sq.mt of carpet area to the existing house will be required to be eligible for Central assistance under the Beneficiary Led Construction component of the housing mission. Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation issued modified Guidelines under PMAY (Urban) to this effect to States and Union Territories for compliance while sending affordable housing proposals for enhancement of existing houses under Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) component of housing mission. Under BLC, beneficiaries will be assisted for construction of new houses and enhancement of existing houses to make them more livable. A minimum addition of 9.0 sq.mt of carpet to the existing pucca or semi-pucca house shall now be ensured for being eligible for Central assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh per beneficiary. This enhancement shall include pucca construction of at least one habitable room or room with kitchen/bathroom /toilet as per the National Building Construction Norms. The new Guidelines also mandated that after the required minimum of 9.0 sq.mt carpet area enhancement, total carpet area shall not be less than 21 sq.mt and must not be more than 30 sq.mt. Under BLC component of PMAY(Urban), eligible beneficiaries already owning pucca or semi-pucca houses are enabled to undertake enhancement of such homes to make them more livable. The Technical Group set up by the Ministry of HUPA, in their assessment of housing shortage in urban areas reported Congested houses of 14.99 million, Obsolescent houses-2.27 million, Non-serviceable kucha houses-0.99 million and Homeless people of 0.53 million, totaling a housing shortage of 18.78 million housing shortage in urban areas. Based on this estimate, the Government has assessed a housing shortage of 20 million dwelling units in urban areas by 2022. The other components of PMAY (Urban) are ; In-situ Slum Redevelopment, Affordable Housing in Partnership and Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme giving options to beneficiaries to choose from based on their needs and income levels. Central assistance to be provided for each beneficiary ranges from Rs.1.00 lakh to Rs.2.30 lakh per beneficiary under different schemes. Ministry of HUPA has so far approved construction of 6.84 lakh affordable houses for Economically Weaker Sections with a total investment of Rs.43,922 cr and with a total Central assistance of Rs.10,050 cr. AAR June 1,2016
