Rs 3, 570 cr sanctioned for NE under housing scheme in 4 years: Minister

GUWAHATI: Union minister of state (in charge) for housing and urban affairs, Hardeep S Puri, has informed that construction of more than 2.3 lakh houses have been sanctioned for the urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-Urban) in the Northeastern states during the last four years.
Reviewing the progress of Urban Missions in the Northeastern states at a meeting in Agartala on Saturday, the minister said that this approval needed to be seen in the context of 26,041 houses which were sanctioned during ten years between 2004-14 under JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana, a statement issued here said.
“Of the houses sanctioned during 2004-14, only 21,159 houses were constructed while the remaining 4,892 houses are under construction. Central assistance amounting Rs 3570 crore has been sanctioned and Rs 1520 crore released during the last four years as against Rs 683 crore sanctioned and Rs 586 crore released during 2004-2014,” he added.
About 1.16 lakh houses (of the 2.3lakh houses) have already been grounded for construction.
Under PMAY (Urban), the government provides assistance in the range of Rs one lakh to Rs 2.67 lakh to each beneficiary under different verticals.
The review exercise was undertaken in several sessions spreading over two days and covered implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City Mission, all launched on June 25, 2015.
The review also covered the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) which was launched on October 2, 2014 besides the continuing 10 per cent Lump Sum Scheme for North-East and North-Eastern Region Urban Development Programme (NERUDP), Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) and Real Estate Regulation Act ( RERA).
During the review, it was informed that 12 towns of Northeast have been included in the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation for Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for providing water taps to all urban households besides improving water supply to the normative level of 135 litres per capita per day, expanding sewerage and drainage networks, promoting non-motorised transport and development of open spaces in mission cities.
“The entire State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) for the North-East states envisaging an investment of Rs 1506.62 crore has been approved. While projects worth Rs 332 crore are under implementation, projects worth Rs 21.37 crore have been completed so far,” he said.
Meghalaya has exceeded the target for new water tap connections by installing 10,168 connections. The online building plan approval system ( OBPS) has been implemented in 436 AMRUT cities. Eighty five projects worth Rs 1371 crore have been taken up under NERDUP. Forty nine projects worth Rs 824 crore have already been completed.
During the Smart City Mission review, it was noted that 10 smart cities in Northeast have been selected in various rounds of City Challenge so far. Itanagar and Shillong have been added in round four during this year.
“A sum of Rs 1024 crore has been released to Northeastern states under Smart Cities Mission so far. Presently, projects worth Rs 443 crore are under implementation,” the minister said.
An MoU signed with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will facilitate the development of a cloud based Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) system in Imphal, Itanagar, Pasighat, Kohima, Namchi, Gangtok and Shillong.
An ICCC developed in a cloud based system for the Northeastern cities would have the advantage of lowering the cost of development, faster deployment and peer to peer learning among cities.
Under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM-U) Urban, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland were declared open defecation free states.
It was informed that Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh will achieve ODF status by December 2018 while Meghalaya will achieve ODF by January 2019.
Tripura chief minister, Biplab Kumar Deb, who took part in the review meet, outlined his vision for making Tripura a model state while seeking support of the ministry for realising it.