PM Modi to e-launch 40,000 affordable homes

Mumbai: Come Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will conduct bhoomi pujanby e-launching from Nagpur construction of nearly 40,000 affordable homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

Bharat Bastewad, secretary, Mhada (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority), confirmed the news and said, “PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Nagpur and conduct bhoomi pujan from Manakpur sports complex ground on Friday.”

PMAY is mooted to meet the target of “Housing for all by 2022” and the benefit is aimed at first-time homebuyers with subsidy to be granted to those falling under the economically weaker section (EWS) category and whose income does not exceed Rs 25,000 per month. Construction of homes that the PM will inaugurate on Friday will be located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Konkan, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur. The central government has made Mhada the nodal agency for executing PMAY in the state with an aim to construct maximum number of homes for the economically weaker section.  

Of the nearly 40,000 homes whose construction will be e-launched on Friday, 90 per cent will be under the EWS category. The bhoomi pujanwill be conducted with the PM as chief guest, along with housing minister Prakash Mehta and minister of state for housing Ravindra Waikar. The state government has proposed to construct around 1.47 lakh affordable homes in Maharashtra, of which around 40,000 homes have been approved whose bhoomi pujan will be carried out on Friday.

According to Mhada, nearly 33,000 homes will be under the EWS category; 5,000 under the lower income group (LIG); 1,000 under the middle income group (MIG); and 100 under the higher income group (HIG). PMAY replaced the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana (RGAY) after the BJP government came to power in 2014. PMAY was launched by the PM on June 25, 2015.