Ghaziabad: Six years on, not a single unit delivered under PMAY

GHAZIABAD: The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) was launched in 2015 with much fanfare. Six years on, the scheme is yet to provide a single dwelling unit in Ghaziabad to the targeted beneficiaries.

In fact, of the 10,850 units sanctioned in the city, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) is supposed to construct some 3,496 units. However, only 240 have been constructed under the Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme to date.

The remaining 7,354 units are to be made by 12 private developers, which are at different stages of construction.

As per rules, of Rs 6 lakh/unit cost of a house under the scheme, Rs 1.5 lakh is provided by the central government, Rs 1 lakh by the state government and the remaining by the beneficiaries.

“But GDA, for its 3,496 units, has received as government assistance only Rs 18 crore out of Rs 87 crore to date. As a result, only 240 units are complete as of today. But none has been provided to beneficiaries yet,” said an authority official.

“For 3,496 units, the government assistance is Rs 87.40 crore, yet the GDA is constructing flats under PMAY on its own at five places of the district and for the scheme to take off in full swing, the remaining government amount needs to be disbursed at the earliest,” he added. Five places where flats under PMAY are being made are Maduban Bapudham, Noor Nagar, Pratap Vihar,Newari and Dasna.

PMAY units under private builders are also being constructed at a sluggish pace.

“Of the 12 developers who are to construct 7,354 units, work on six projects has still not been taken up. While land use change in two projects is awaited, map sanction of one project is still awaited. In the remaining projects, work is yet to start despite the approval of the layout plans,” said the official.

Earlier the government had set a target of 36,000 units for Ghaziabad under PMAY, which was to be delivered by 2022 but that proved to be unrealistic in the wake of financial and other problems. So, the target was scaled down to 10,850.

In February, the GDA board approved the increase in cost of each PMAY housing unit from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. However, the new rates are applicable only for new housing units and not those already under construction.