COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in reverse migration of urban migrants/ poor in the country. Urban migrants stay in slums/ informal settlements/ unauthorised colonies/ peri-urban areas to save cost on housing. They need decent rental housing at affordable rate at their work sites. In order to address this need, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has initiated Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs), a sub-scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U). This will provide ease of living to urban migrants/ poor in Industrial Sector as well as in non-formal urban economy to get access to dignified affordable rental housing close to their workplace. The ARHC scheme will be implemented through two models:

i. Utilizing existing Government funded vacant houses to convert into ARHCs through Public Private Partnership or by Public Agencies

ii. Construction, Operation and Maintenance of ARHCs by Public/ Private Entities on their own vacant land

Incentives will be provided to public/ private entities by Central/ State Government for developing & operating ARHCs which will include additional FAR/FSI, Income tax and GST exemption, Single window approval within 30 days, Project finance at lower interest rate, Trunk infrastructure till project site, Municipal services at residential rates and Use permission changes for houses for the vacant land.

Beneficiaries for ARHCs are urban migrants/ poor from EWS/LIG categories comprising of street vendors, rickshaw pullers and other service providers, industrial workers along with migrants working with market/ trade associations, educational/ health institutions, hospitality sector, long term tourists/ visitors, students or any other category. ARHCs will be a mix of single/ double bedroom Dwelling Units and Dormitory of 4/6 beds including all common facilities and will be exclusively used for rental housing for a minimum period of 25 years.

MoHUA has provisioned for an additional grant in the form of Technology Innovation Grant (TIG) under TSM for the project using innovative & alternate technology for speedier, sustainable, resource efficient and disaster resilient construction. TIG of Rs. 1,00,000/- per dwelling unit in case of double bedroom (upto 60 sqm carpet area), Rs. 60,000/- per Dwelling Unit (upto 30 sqm carpet area) in case of single bedroom and Rs. 20,000 per Dormitory Bed (upto 10 sqm carpet area) shall be released by MoHUA to entities through BMTPC.

TIG will be applicable only for projects using innovative and alternate technologies and sanctioned during the PMAY(U) Mission period (March 2022) and completed within 18 months after getting all statutory approvals.

The ARHCs will ensure a dignified living environment for urban migrants/poor close to their workplaces at affordable rates. This will unlock existing vacant housing stock and make them available in urban space. It will propel new investment opportunities and promote entrepreneurship in rental housing sector by encouraging Public/Private Entities to efficiently utilize their vacant land available for developing ARHCs.

A comprehensive and Robust MIS System is in place that helps all stakeholders to seamlessly manage information pertaining to physical and financial progress. The MIS allows submitting on-line demand survey with tracking facility and helps in housekeeping of various records through digitisation such as Survey, Project information, Beneficiary details, fund utilisation etc. The MIS is equipped with Geo-tagging features and integrated with BHUVAN Portal of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and BHARAT MAP of National Informatics Centre (NIC) for monitoring the progress of construction of houses under the BLC and projects under AHP and ISSR verticals. The MIS has also been integrated with UMANG Mobile App, NITI Aayog Dashboard and DBT Bharat Portal for dissemination of information.

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): The transfer of the Central Assistance and State/ULB share to the beneficiaries of BLC vertical of the Mission is being done by States/ULBs through DBT mode where the instalments are credited directly into the beneficiary’s bank account as per construction stage completed and geo-tagged.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs emerges as No. 1 in the ranking evaluated by DBT Mission for 2019-20.

CLSS Awas Portal (CLAP): A web based monitoring system, CLSS Awas Portal (CLAP) is a common platform where all stakeholders i.e. MoHUA, Central Nodal Agencies, Primary Lending Institutions, Beneficiaries and Citizens are integrated in real time environment. The portal facilitates processing of applications along with tracking of subsidy status by beneficiaries. CLSS tracker has also been incorporated in PMAY(U) mobile App and UMANG platform.

A total of 5% of allocation under the scheme is earmarked for Capacity Building, Information Education & Communication (IEC) and Administrative & Other Expenses (A&OE) under PMAY (U). Allocation available under the Capacity Building head is being utilised for carrying out various activities required for effective implementation of Mission. Illustrative activities under the Capacity Building head include the following ten components:

Aligning to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to address issues that arise from life transformation after moving into pucca houses, ANGIKAAR- campaign for change management was launched on 29th August 2019. The campaign focuses on adopting best practices such as water & energy conservation, waste management, health, sanitation and hygiene for PMAY(U) beneficiaries through community mobilization and IEC activities. PMAY(U) had converged with various Urban Missions of MoHUA and schemes of other Central Ministries like Health & Family Welfare, Jal Shakti, Environment Forest & Climate Change, New & Renewable Energy, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Power, Youth Affairs & Sports and Women & Child Development.

The campaign was formally launched on 2nd October, 2019, commemorating 150th Gandhi Jayanti in more than 4,000 cities wherein need assessment is conducted along with door to door awareness for change management. Subsequently, this is followed by continuous and consistent ward level IEC activities in States/ UTs which includes key messages of FIT India (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports) and Poshan Abhiyan (Ministry of Women & Child Development) with active participation of sportspersons/ personalities, youth clubs, educational institutions, FIT India Plogging events and orientation/ awareness drives/ health camps respectively.

In order to have an integrated approach for comprehensive technical & financial evaluation of emerging and proven building materials & technologies, their standardisation, developing specifications and code of practices, evolving necessary tendering process, capacity building and creating appropriate delivery mechanism, MoHUA has set up a Technology Sub-Mission under PMAY(U) with the Mission statement as ‘Sustainable Technological Solutions for Faster and Cost Effective Construction of Houses suiting to Geo-Climatic and Hazard Conditions of the Country’.

TSM facilitates adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and building materials for faster and quality construction of houses. TSM also facilitates preparation and adoption of layout designs and building plans suitable for various geo-climatic zones. It also assists States/Cities in deploying disaster resistant and environment-friendly technologies. A total of 33 Alternate Technologies have been identified. Around 15 Lakh houses are been constructed using alternate technologies pan India.

MoHUA has initiated the Global Housing Technology Challenge - India (GHTC India) which aims to identify and mainstream a basket of innovative construction technologies from across the globe for housing construction sector that are sustainable, eco-friendly and disaster-resilient. They are to be cost effective and speedier while enabling the quality construction of houses, meeting diverse geo-climatic conditions and desired functional needs. Future technologies will also be supported to foster an environment of research and development in the country. GHTC- India aspires to develop an eco-system to deliver on the technological challenges of the housing construction sector in a holistic manner.

Hon'ble Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Construction Technology India- 2019, a global Expo-cum-Conference, which was organized on 2-3 March 2019 in New Delhi. 60 Exhibitors with 54 proven technologies from 25 countries showcased their technologies in the Expo. Prime Minister declared the year 2019-20 as the 'Construction Technology Year'.

ASHA-India is an initiative which provides incubation support to potential future construction technologies that are not yet market ready (pre-prototype technologies). 11 Pre-prototype technologies have been identified for providing incubation support at 5 ASHA-India Centres i.e IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee and CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat.

The ASHA-India initiative also provides accelerator support to the technologies that are market ready (post-prototype). 5 such technologies have been shortlisted for providing acceleration support.

Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Light House Projects (LHPs) in six cities i.e. Agartala (Tripura), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu) on January 1, 2021 as part of GHTC-India via video conference.

These six cities have been selected through a national challenge. Nearly 1,000 houses at each location are being constructed under LHPs using six distinct technologies from a basket of 54 such technologies shortlisted under GHTC-India, 2019.

The Lighthouse projects will serve as live laboratories for different aspects of transfer of technology to the field. This includes planning, design, production of components, construction practices and testing for both faculty and students of IITs/ NITs/ Engineering colleges/ Planning and Architecture colleges, builders, professionals of private and public sectors and other relevant stakeholders. GHTC-India ushered a paradigm shift in the construction technology to transform the eco-system of housing construction.

For use of innovative technology in construction, the Ministry has introduced a Technology Innovation Grant as an additional grant of Rs. 4.0 Lakh per house over and above the existing share of Rs 1.5 lakh per house under PMAY(U) for LHPs.

The LHPs are being implemented in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh to demonstrate the innovative construction technologies which are cost-effective, green and sustainable.

In order to showcase the field application of new emerging technologies, MoHUA has taken an initiative to construct Demonstration Housing through Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC). A DHP provides on-site orientation to practitioners in the housing sector with knowledge on the application and use of alternate technology. Each DHP contains up to 40 Houses with sustainable, cost and time effective emerging alternate housing construction technologies suitable to the geo-climatic and hazardous conditions of the region. Such DHPs have been completed in Bhubaneshwar, Bihar Sharif, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Nellore and are under pipeline in Agartala, Panchkula, Goa and Hyderabad.