New Delhi, July 23 (IANS): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday proposed an allocation of Rs 2.2 lakh crore for urban housing, along with a Rs 10 lakh crore interest subsidy scheme in the flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme.

This will give further impetus to the government’s programme to provide affordable housing.

"Housing needs of one crore urban poor and middle-class families to be addressed with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore, including the Central assistance of Rs 2.2 lakh crore over the next five years," FM Sitharaman said in her Budget Speech in Parliament.

She also mentioned the first Cabinet decision of Modi 3.0 term and said that the construction of three crore additional houses will be facilitated under the PMAY scheme of which two crore will be in the rural areas under PMAY (Grameen).

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is among the most ambitious schemes of the Modi government.

The allotment is a significant expansion of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) in the latest budget announcement.

In the Interim Budget 2024, the Finance Minister had proposed that two crore more houses would be taken up in the next five years. Under this scheme, the government claimed that they were close to achieving the target of three crore houses.

In last year's, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was enhanced by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore.