New Delhi: Four years after the Modi government introduced its Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme in July 2020, less than seven percent of the 83,000-plus government-constructed flats under the scheme have been converted into low-rent housing for the urban poor, ThePrint has learnt.
Launched during the Covid-19 pandemic that led to a large-scale exodus of migrant workers from cities, the scheme was aimed at providing housing to the urban poor on a rental basis.
For this, 83,534 flats across the country were to be converted into rental accommodations. These flats had been constructed under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojana.
Under the ARHC scheme, these flats were to be converted to rental housing for the urban poor by outsourcing the management and maintenance to a private concessionaire for 25 years.
But to date, just 5,648 flats in five states and Union territories have been made available to the urban poor on a rental basis, according to data available on the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs portal.
ThePrint had in June last year reported the muted response to the scheme from states. Since then, no new flat has been converted into rental housing.
Of the 83,534 flats, a majority are in Maharashtra (32,245) and Delhi (29,112), but no project has been taken up so far, according to senior ministry officials.
In 13 states and Union territories, 13,061 flats have been identified to be converted into rental housing in the past four years. Of these, 5,648 have been converted into rental housing in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir.
According to the data available with the ministry, government agencies in five states and UTs are in the process of converting another 7,413 housing units into rental accommodation.
According to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh government officials, the location of some of these flats, their condition as they were constructed long ago, and the poor response from private concessionaires are some of the main reasons for the muted response to the AHRC scheme.
Providing housing to the urban poor has been one of the key promises of the Modi government.
Like ARHC, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban’s (PMAY-U), which was launched in June 2015, has an In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) component that is aimed at providing affordable housing to urban poor living in slum clusters.
However, not many poor people have benefitted from it, said urban development and housing experts.
According to data available with the housing and urban affairs ministry officials, which ThePrint has seen, 2.96 lakh houses sanctioned under the PMAY-U’s ISSR component have been sanctioned, of which 1.56 lakh have been completed till 11 March. The scheme will end in December this year.
While urban development experts told ThePrint that more projects should have been taken up, given that a large percentage of the population in cities live in slum clusters, state government officials cited the availability of land, and poor response from developers, among others as reasons for taking up fewer projects under the ISSR component of PMAY-U.
“While government agencies across the country have evicted a large number of people, little has been done to provide housing to them,” said Enakshi Ganguly, executive director, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), an NGO based in Delhi.
According to Ganguly, around 7.4 lakh slum dwellers have been evicted in 2022 and 2023 across the country. Earlier this month, the land rights body came out with a report on evictions of slum residents in India.
“In cities, such as Delhi, very few in-situ redevelopment projects have been taken up. We don’t even know what the status of rental housing is in Delhi. There is a need to have a well-thought-out policy for providing housing to urban poor,” Ganguly told ThePrint.
ThePrint reached the housing and urban affairs ministry and the Delhi government for comment via WhatsApp. The report will be updated as and when their responses are received.
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Housing stock under ARHC not in good condition
According to state government officials, as the flats under the ARHC scheme were constructed long ago, the housing stock needs repair, while some are in dilapidated condition.
The location of housing projects, their dilapidated condition in some states, and poor response from developers are among the main reasons for muted response to the ARHC scheme, officials of three state governments told ThePrint.
A UP government official said, “Some of the flats in a housing complex, constructed under JnNURM in Agra, have been found to be structurally unfit. As these flats were constructed long back, a decision is yet to be taken whether to demolish them or retrofit them.”
The official said that several attempts have been made to tender more than 15,000 houses, including 5,232 flats for the urban poor in various parts of the state, under the ARHC scheme. “Most of the flats have been constructed in the outskirts. The response from developers is not good,” the official added.
In Delhi, too, some of the flats constructed under JnNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana are lying in dilapidated condition.
In 2022, a portion of the housing complex in Bawana, which was constructed under the JnNURM scheme, collapsed due to the theft of iron rods as the complex lay vacant for years.
“Some of the flats were found to be structurally unsafe. A decision is yet to be taken on whether to demolish the flats or retrofit them,” said a senior official with the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, under the Delhi government.
As for the disposal of more than 29,000 flats in Delhi, the Centre and the Delhi government are yet to reach an agreement on the matter.
In Maharashtra, the ARHC proposals are being implemented by municipal corporations in around 40 plus cities. “As of now, no proposal has been taken up under the rental housing scheme,” said a senior official with the Maharashtra government’s housing department.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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