Landowners hold key to this new Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana push now

The state housing authority, which is scouting for land to execute the Prime Minister’s flagship scheme of providing affordable homes to the urban poor, is thinking of approaching private landowners and cut them a deal in exchange for plots to raise houses. Senior officials from the Maharashtra Housing And Development Authority (MHADA) said owners who agree to provide land parcels for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) will be paideither in cash or a certain number of houses that will be constructed on their plot, which they can put up for sale to recover the land cost. Apart from this, MHADA has asked all municipal corporations in the state including Mumbai to inform it every time they receive a building proposal for land more than 4,000 square metre in area, because the housing authority is allowed to purchase 20 per cent of homes raised under such a project.

The homes in both the segments — on private land procured by MHADA as well as in a developer’s project — will be linked to PMAY.A senior MHADA official associated with PMAY said, “This could be termed a joint venture scheme with private landowners and it is only in the discussion stage. If the landowner chooses to be compensated with homes that MHADA will construct on the plots they provide, the proportion could be 80:20 or 60:40, depending on the project.”

Referring to builder-backed projects,MHADA secretary Bharat Bastewad said, “Under government rules, construction projects on land measuring 4,000 sq m and more are obliged to sell us 20 per cent of the homes. We have asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to intimate us when such proposals come in. These homes will be bought at ready reckoner rates from the developer.”

MHADA clarified that it will not blindly purchase a fifth of the homes from developers who propose such large-sized constructions. “It won’t be a blanket buy. We will decide whether to buy the homes or not on the basis of factors like feasibility and location of the project,” said Bastewad.

One such proposal is already under consideration at MHADA’s Pune board.

The centre and state jointly provide a subsidy of Rs 2.5 lakh for each PMAY home which is 30 sq m in area.

(By Varun Singh, DNA)