West Bengal trailing for PMAY-Gramin goals, while Andhra must step up PMAY-Urban constructions
West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are significantly lagging behind targets to provide housing under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). At the current rate of construction, the states will need to build close to 6,000 houses every day to meet the December 2024 goals.
The central scheme to provide affordable housing was launched in 2015 and has two branches, PMAY-Gramin for rural areas and PMAY-Urban for the others.
In the Union Budget 2024-2025, the central government announced its plan to construct 20 million more houses in the next five years under PMAY-G.
The newly formed National Democratic Alliance government, in its first cabinet meeting on June 10, 2024, approved the construction of 30 million additional houses under PMAY. Of these, 20 million will be under PMAY-G and the rest under PMAY-U.
The government announced that the additional units will be over and above the ones to be constructed under PMAY-G and PMAY-U by December 2024.
The government initially set a deadline of constructing 29.5 million housing units under PMAY-G and 12 million housing units under PMAY-U programmes by March 2022. However, the government missed this target and in August 2022 extended the deadline to ensure “housing for all” to December 2024.
West Bengal needs to step up PMAY-G constructions
According to the PMAY-G dashboard, more than 26.21 million of the 29.5 million Gramin housing units scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024 have already been completed as of June 11, 2024 — 89 per cent of the target.
But now the country needs to finish constructing 3,282,103 housing units under PMAY-G between June 11, 2024 and December 31, 2024.
Of these, 1,157,788 housing units (or 35 per cent of the remaining ones) must be built in West Bengal alone, implying that 5,675 houses must be built in the state every day until the target is met.
West Bengal has already met 75 per cent of the state’s target of constructing 4,569,423 houses by December 31, 2024, which is critical to the overall national performance of PMAY-G.
According to a state-level report released by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, five states / Union territories have met less than half of their state-level PMAY-G target. These include Nagaland, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya.
Andhra Pradesh trailing in PMAY-U constructions
PMAY-U aimed to build approximately 12 million (11.86 million to be exact) housing units by December 31, 2024. Of these, over 8.36 million houses have been completed as of June 11, 2024, according to the progress report of the PMAY-U provided by Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on its website. This means approximately 71 per cent of the target has been met.
The country now needs to complete the construction of nearly 3.5 million housing units between June 11, 2024 and December 31, 2024. Of these, 34 per cent must be built in Andhra Pradesh alone.
This implies Andhra Pradesh has met 45 per cent of the state’s target of constructing 2,137,028 houses by December 31, 2024. Meeting the remaining targets is critical to the PMAY-U’s overall national performance.
To meet the December 31, 2024 deadline, the state must construct 1,173,327 housing units, or 5,752 houses per day.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ state-level report, six other states/UTs, including Andhra Pradesh, have met less than half of their state-specific PMAY-U targets. These include the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Bihar, and Kashmir.
So far, PMAY-G has made better progress than PMAY-U. However, going forward, the performance needs to be monitored regularly and the challenges fixed, to ensure that the ambitious programme of 30 million additional houses under PMAY-G and PMAY-U, announced by the Prime Minister on June 10, 2024, takes off at the right pace and is on schedule by 2030.
This is also significant for achieving the goal under United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), which directly calls for adequate, safe and affordable and adequate housing for all by 2030.
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