Within Kochi Corporation limits, 2,285 houses have been constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and LIFE Mission (Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment) run by the State government, Mayor Soumini Jain announced here on Saturday.
Of the total 8,266 beneficiaries of the PMAY-LIFE Mission project in the city, 4,247 houses were under construction. Additionally, 1,344 beneficiaries were likely to be included soon as part of the seventh detailed project report that was prepared recently.
The corporation had taken a bank loan of ₹35 crore to pay its share of the funds for the project. The local body had earlier taken a ₹57-crore loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) out of which ₹50 crore had already been disbursed, Deputy Mayor K.R. Premakumar said at an event held to declare the completion of houses within the city, even as the Chief Minister announced in Thiruvananthapuram the State-level completion of 2 lakh houses under LIFE Mission.
The PMAY and LIFE projects converged in June 2018 in urban local bodies, keeping in mind that the amount from either one scheme would not be sufficient for construction of houses, officials said. Of the ₹4 lakh that the converged scheme provides for construction of houses to people who already own land, ₹1.5 lakh is provided by the Centre, ₹50,000 by the State and the ₹2 lakh by the corporation.
Speaking at the event, Opposition leader K. J. Antony said that while the PMAY-LIFE scheme benefited those with land, thousands of people remained both homeless and landless. The third phase of LIFE Mission was directed towards this population of around 3,500 people in Kochi, officials said.
