Mumbai: With Maharashtra severely lagging behind in meeting its target for one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship schemes, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in urban areas under the government’s ‘housing for all mission’, the state housing department has chalked out a strategy to ramp up its performance on a war footing.
According to state housing department data accessed by ThePrint, Maharashtra has so far been able to complete just 27 percent of the targeted number of houses for the economically weaker sections under PMAY (Urban), with only 16 months left for the scheme to end and only nine months before the Lok Sabha elections, when the government will have to take its performance to the people.
To speed up the implementation of PMAY (Urban), the state housing department last week set up a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) directly under the supervision of the additional chief secretary of the department, Valsa Nair Singh, to monitor all PMAY (Urban) projects in the state, track allocation of funds and the expenditure, resolve all major and minor issues and keep track of the allotment of the houses as well.
Speaking to ThePrint, Valsa Nair Singh said, “A PMU is being formed to effectively implement PMAY (Urban) and solve all the hindrances and issues projects in the scheme are facing. The unit, which will be under MahaHousing, will also monitor fund allocation and expenditure, and ensure the online dashboard of all projects is updated as per the reality on the ground.”
The state government constituted MahaHousing in 2019 as the implementing agency for PMAY (Urban) in the state. The state nodal agency for PMAY (Urban) is the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), which creates affordable housing in the state by redeveloping its old colonies and decrepit cessed buildings (old buildings that pay a cess to MHADA for their maintenance), as well as creating fresh housing stock, and sells these houses at a discount to market price through a lottery.
A senior state housing department official who did not wish to be named said MHADA is already burdened with its core duties and responsibilities and does not have adequate time to micromanage PMAY (Urban) projects.
He added that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis held a detailed review of the scheme in September last year, when the project completion was just at 12 percent of the target.
“The Deputy CM, who is also in charge of the housing portfolio, was not happy with the progress of the scheme. In comparison, PMAY (Rural) is doing well. We gave some directions to speed up the implementation, but these have not been followed in letter and spirit, and so we have now formed a dedicated PMU,” he said.
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PMAY (Urban) targets
When the ‘Housing for All’ mission was launched in 2015, Maharashtra, according to its population, was given a target of creating 6,35,041 houses for the economically weaker sections in its urban areas. So far, according to the official cited above, only 27 percent of this target has been achieved and work on some more projects is underway.
Projects in PMAY (Urban) are undertaken through three major approaches — affordable housing projects, beneficiary-led construction and in-situ slum redevelopment. State housing department officials said that in Maharashtra’s cities, a vast majority of projects are being undertaken through the affordable housing component and involve building high rises.
The Union government contributes Rs 1.5 lakh per tenement for houses for the economically weaker sections. The total cost of a tenement is about Rs 6-7 lakh in Maharashtra, housing department officials said.
“In many other states, the contribution of beneficiary-led construction is much higher, so they have fewer delays in construction and are closer to their targets,” the above-mentioned official said.
Role of PMU
The PMU will take regular stock of all projects under progress and also make site visits, according to a government resolution issued by the state housing department last week. The unit will work with MHADA as well as local civic bodies and help speed up clearances for PMAY (Urban) projects.
It will have four cells — finance, marketing, MIS (management information system) and technical.
The finance cell will keep track of all funds allocated for PMAY (Urban) projects by MHADA until now, and track fund disbursal on a daily basis.
If the implementing agency is not spending the funds despite allocation, the PMU will follow up with them. This cell will also create a dashboard of the funds allocated and spent, said the government resolution.
It will also handhold individual beneficiaries in getting housing loans sanctioned, wherever required.
The MIS team will keep the dashboard of projects updated and ensure it matches with the status on ground.
Further, the technical team will take data from MIS, get real time pictures from the ground and give a regular report to the state housing department, while the marketing cell will resolve any issues in the sale of these tenements constructed under the affordable housing project component.
The PMU will have to ensure that for every revenue division, there are three third-party auditors and social auditors, the government resolution said.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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