The Union Cabinet approved development of Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) for urban migrants and poor that will make housing available at affordable rent close to the place of work, the government said.

ARHC is a sub-scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban.

The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 14 this year.

Who will be the beneficiaries of the scheme?

A large part of the workforce in manufacturing industries, service providers in hospitality, health, domestic/commercial establishments, and construction or other sectors, labourers, students, etc who come from rural areas or small towns seeking better opportunities will be the target beneficiary under ARHC.

ARHC will create a new ecosystem in urban areas making housing available at affordable rent close to the place of work. 

Officials said more than three lakh people will be beneficiaries of the scheme.

Investment under ARHC is expected to create new job opportunities. ARHC will cut down unnecessary travel, congestion and pollution.

How will the scheme be implemented?

Existing vacant government-funded housing complexes will be converted into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes through “concession agreements” for 25 years. 

The concessionaire will make the complexes livable by repair or retrofit and maintenance of rooms and filling up infrastructure gaps such as water, sewer, sanitation, road and related work.

Special incentives such as use permission, 50 per cent additional floor area ratio or floor space index, concessional loan at priority sector lending rate and tax relief at par with affordable housing will be offered to private and public entities to develop ARHC on their own available vacant land for 25 years.

States and Union Territories will select concessionaires through transparent bidding. Complexes will revert to the urban local bodies after 25 years to restart the next cycle like earlier, or run on their own.

An expenditure of Rs 600 crore is estimated in the form of “technology innovation grant” which will be released for projects using identified innovative technologies for construction.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is an initiative by the government in which affordable housing will be provided to the poor with a target of building 20 million affordable houses by March 31, 2022. It has two components: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) for the urban poor and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin) for the rural poor.

The PMAY(U), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015, aims at ensuring housing for all by 2022 by providing financial assistance to beneficiaries. The government has set a target of 1 crore houses in urban areas across the country over a period of seven years from 2015 to 2022.

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