Construction of over 12.83 lakh affordable houses approved by

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today said the Modi-government has so far approved construction of over 12.83 lakh affordable houses for urban poor, crossing the 12.41 lakh mark approved under the 10-years of previous government.
Naidu also noted that withdrawal of high value currency notes announced by the government would have a "positive impact" on real estate sector, saying it will "ultimately benefit the sector and all stakeholders".
He said the demonetisation also had a positive effect on Urban Local Bodies with record increase of 268 per cent growth in property tax collection at Rs 13,192 crore in November over Rs 3,607 crore over the same month last year.

Comparing performance under NDA government's PMAY (Urban) scheme and Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) -- the scheme of UPA government, Naidu said that as against investment of Rs 32,717 crore approved under JNNURM, a huge investment of Rs 70,145 crore has already been cleared under PMAY (Urban).
While Central assistance of only Rs 17,405 crore was committed during the previous 10-years, Rs 19,009 crore has already been approved under the NDA government's scheme, he added.
"I am happy to announce that with these approvals this Government, in just two and a half years has done more than what the previous UPA Government has done in ten years, for the urban poor," he said.

Naidu said that his ministry today cleared construction of over 1.97 lakh houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) in seven states.

"This speed, scale and spread of reaching out to urban poor in a short time since the launch of PMAY (Urban) in June last year is an evidence of government with a difference and it speaks volumes about the sense of urgency that this government is according to make a difference to urban sector, which is the need of the hour," he said.
The Minister stated that Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal are "good performing" states under PMAY(Urban) so far in terms of starting construction work under approved projects.

On impact of demonetisation on real estate sector, he
said it will lead to stabilisation of prices and result in a "new normal" in the sector and added that he would soon have a meeting with sector representatives to hear their point of view.
States sanctioned affordable houses by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation today are Tamil Nadu-1,13,327 houses with an investment of Rs 3,714 crore, Karnataka- 31,880 (Rs 1,186 crore), Gujarat-18,248 (Rs 1,096 crore), Madhya Pradesh-16,448 (Rs 813 crore), Punjab-16,187 (Rs 447 crore), Rajasthan-1,280 (Rs 50 crore) and Meghalaya-32 (Rs1 crore).