By – Prakarsh Kastwar
These projects should considerably contribute to addressing the country’s overall housing shortfall.
The government will introduce a housing initiative for the middle class to buy or develop their own homes, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget 2024 speech on February 1.
“Our Government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class ‘living in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorized colonies’ to buy or build their own houses,” the Prime Minister said in her interim budget speech.
Regarding the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural), she stated that the government is near to completing the construction of 3 crore dwellings in India’s rural areas, and that the government will fund the construction of 2 crore more houses over the next five years under PMAY (Rural).
“Despite COVID-related obstacles, execution of the PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) has persisted, and we are near to meeting the objective of three crore dwellings. Two crore more dwellings will be built over the next five years to accommodate the demand caused by a rise in the number of families, she said.
“The PM Awas Yojana aims to increase housing units by ₹2 crore over the next five years. A new middle-class housing program is expected to allow people living in rented/chawl/unauthorised areas to build/buy their own homes. These initiatives could considerably help to address the country’s overall housing shortfall,” said Ravi Shankar Singh, Colliers India’s Managing Director, Residential Transaction Services.
By 2024, PMAY-G hopes to give a pucca house with basic amenities to all homeless households, as well as those living in kutcha and decaying houses in rural areas.