Mhada budget to focus on homes under PM scheme

Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) will shift its focus to construct homes in semi-urban cities of the state under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in its upcoming financial budget of Rs 3,000 crore for the financial year 2016-17.

In the past, Mhada had stressed on constructing under its lottery system for Mumbai, Konkan, Nashik, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad. However, this year, Mhada received proposals from various municipal corporations and zilla parishads of the state including Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Nanded and Aurangabad municipal corporations and Mhada’s Konkan Board, asking them to fund construction of homes under the PMAY model.

“In various meetings of the high power committee and housing ministry, it was decided that the Centre’s PMAY should also be explored and represented equally when it comes to allocating budget for construction of homes,” said a senior Mhada official.

Mhada will make an announcement to that effect on March 28 when the financial budget for the financial year 2016-17 will be tabled. “Out of the Rs 3,000 crore set aside for the budget this year, we plan to allocate Rs 2,500 crore for construction of homes under both lottery and PMAY scheme. The budget this year has gone down from Rs 4,669 crore to Rs 3,000 crore as we have spent only about Rs 1,000 crore in the ongoing financial year,” the official added.

This means Mhada has around Rs 3,000 crore which it could not spend and which will be carried forward for the financial year 2016-17, as leftover from the 2015-16 budget. “The reason behind Mhada not being able to spend the remaining amount varies from slowdown in the real estate market to trouble when it comes to acquiring land or during construction,” said the official.

After allocating Rs 2,500 crore out of Rs 3,000 crore, the remaining amount will be kept aside for employment funds and also for the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board (MBRRB). PMAY replaced the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana (RGAY) after the BJP government came to power in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched PMAY on June 25, 2015.

To address housing requirements of masses, the Central government has set four components which includes slum redevelopment by using land as resource, credit link subsidy where home loans will be given at an interest rate of 6.5 per cent for 15 years, followed by giving a subsidy of Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh to EWS category and constructing houses in villages, respectively.