13,000 houses built against 5 lakh target

Urban Development Department officials trying to complete 50,000 units by mid-August

The Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department needs to race against time towards materialising the 5.01 lakh houses for the urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Affordable Housing Partnership (PMAY-NTR Nagar) as only 14.29% houses are either complete or nearing completion at present.

The target for completion of five lakh houses is set for March 2019 by the department following the instructions of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

2.62% completion rate

According to the reports presented by the department in a recent meeting with chiefs of Grade III municipalities and nagar panchayats, construction of 13,168 houses (2.62%) in Urban Local Bodies (ULB) of seven districts has been completed with all finishings and the next in line towards completion are 58,530 (11.67%) houses for which roof slabs are done.

Under the PMAY scheme, the Central government sanctioned 5,01,429 urban houses during the financial years 2015-16, 2017-18 and 2018-19.

While the State called tenders for construction of 4.52 lakh houses in all 110 ULBs only 2.95 lakh houses are grounded so far, according to officials.

Advanced technology

However, the pace of construction is going to pick up in the coming months as the Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, the nodal agency of the project, is using the advanced Monolithic Shear Wall Technology with aluminium (Mivan) shuttering formworks.

The technology helps construction of dwelling units in ground floor + 3 structures quickly. Initially, the lack of response for the tenders for the technology has caused a delay but the same technology is making the construction of such huge number of units in short time possible, an official said.

Across the State, 372 aluminium shuttering sets are being used for the construction of the units.

The formworks are used to shutter the concrete moulds of walls and slabs after concrete is poured into them.

Area of units

Meanwhile, the department is gearing up to finish at least 50,000 units by mid-August to be inaugurated by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The units for weaker sections are being constructed in 365 and 430 square feet area.

Beneficiaries’ selection

On the other hand, only 2.35 lakh beneficiaries were approved by the district-level selection committees (DLSC) so far and only 1.78 lakh of them have paid the first instalment part of the beneficiary contribution.

In many urban local bodies, excess housing units were sanctioned while insufficient units were sanctioned in the case of some other ULBs.