Secretary, MoHUA chaired 57th meeting of CSMC under PMAY(U)

NEW DELHI: Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), chaired the 57th meeting of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) on December 23. Under various PMAY (U) verticals, project plans for 1.07 lakh houses were accepted for building in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry, and Uttarakhand. Mishra also assessed the implementation status of PMAY (U).

The issues of grounding and housing construction in the states/UTs were discussed at the meeting. Mishra instructed state and local officials to speed up house construction in their respective districts. Grounding should be the top priority for states/UTs, followed by an emphasis on 100% completion of grounded houses, he added. He also asked states and UTs to declare saturation of demand city by city.

Mishra asked the Light House Projects (LHP) states to promote LHP technologies in India so that they can be replicated. He instructed state officials to encourage students, professionals, and other interested parties to enroll as Technograhis so that more people might learn how to use these technologies. He urged all states and UTs to visit the LHP sites and learn more about it. The Technograhi module should be used to train engineers and urban planners.

Approval was given at the CSMC meeting for the construction of Demonstration Housing Projects (DHPs) in Dimapur, Nagaland, and Kot Bhalwal, Jammu. Under the Technology Sub-Mission component of PMAY (U), both projects will be created using new or alternative technologies. The CSMC also approved IIT Kharagpur’s proposal for ASHA-India incubation support for a low-cost Bamboo Housing Project.

Mishra also released a ‘Compendium on Indigenous Innovative Building Materials and Construction Technologies’ during the meeting. It contains information on 84 technologies that will be on display at the Indian Housing Technology Mela (IHTM) in Lucknow from October 5 to October 7, 2021. Its goal is to be a beneficial resource for disseminating and replicating technology at the field level across the country. The compendium will aid policymakers, public and private construction agencies, and other stakeholders in choosing and implementing materials and technology in future housing developments.