New Delhi, Dec 19 (IANS): Under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) a total of 1.18 crore houses have been sanctioned by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), out of which 1.14 crore have been grounded and 88.32 lakh are completed/delivered to the beneficiaries including homeless across the country, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.
Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu said in a reply in Lok Sabha that as per the Census of India 2011, a total of 9.38 lakh people were homeless in urban areas of the country.
In reply to another question, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal said a High-Level Committee of reputed urban planners, urban economists, and institutions was constituted by MoHUA on May 31, 2022, to make recommendations on urban sector policies, capacity building, planning, implementation and governance.
The term of the Committee expired on July 3, 2024. The terms of reference of the Committee inter alia, were to study urban planning scenarios in States/cities with identification of gaps and suggesting short/medium/long term solutions, he said.
The Minister said the Committee’s report also gave innovative ideas and technological intervention on urban planning to enable cities to become ‘engines of economic growth and innovation’ and facilitate cities to become sustainable based on the carrying capacity of ecosystem support.
Highlighting the efforts for better planning and making of city Master Plans, the minister said the MoHUA has issued Urban and Regional Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) Guidelines, 2014 which inter alia deal with urban planning and governance including sustainability and various challenges faced by the urban areas including Delhi.
The minister said the MoHUA is implementing Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), under which there is a Sub-Scheme on Formulation of GIS-based Master plans for AMRUT cities. The Sub-Scheme aims at geo database creation and formulation of GIS-based Master Plans.
At present, 461 AMRUT Cities in 35 States are on board under the scheme. So far, 219 towns have notified their Master Plans and Master plans for 158 towns are at the draft stage. He said under AMRUT 2.0, the Scheme for Formulation of GIS-based Master Plans has been extended to cover Class-II Towns with a population of 50,000 - 99,999. So far, 661 Class-II towns have submitted proposals under the scheme.