All government departments directed to spot vacant lands for more affordable housing projects

PM Narendra Modi’s office has asked all government departments to spot unutilised land, especially in developed government colonies, so that it can be transformed into affordable housing projects. This move will help boosting the government’s efforts to fulfil the BJP's poll promise of providing affordable housing for all by 2022.

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For the promise to turn into reality, the government wants to build a land bank, since most of the times housing project plans fail to get executed because of scarcity of land.

By asking government offices to identify such pieces of land, the PMO hopes to add land packets to its land bank, after which state governments can send proposals to buy land for housing projects.

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"The PMO is monitoring the progress closely. Our experience is that some states are performing better than others because they already have their beneficiary lists ready and land availability is no problem there. So now directives have gone to all ministries to prepare a list of colonies where new houses can be built," a senior government official told ET.

Since government colonies already have basic amenities, and there won’t be issues of delayed approvals, the urban development ministry is trying to identify land within these colonies.

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Across 30 states and Uts, the Centre has so far approved housing projects worth Rs 90,000 crore, with construction of 16.42 lakh affordable houses. Out of all the states, Tamil Nadu is leading the initiative with 2.27 lakh houses, followed by Andhra Pradesh (1.94 lakh houses) and Madhya Pradesh (1.81 lakh houses).

"With this initiative we hope to tell the states, you have this land available at a certain place. Now send us a proposal because even if it is central land we will get the approvals done. This will hopefully increase the pace of implementation," the official added.

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(Image source 99Acres)