Pandemic affected construction activities of real estate projects across India: MoHUA

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected the construction activities of real estate projects across the country. He also said that the central government has taken several initiatives to provide assistance to the urban poor and slum dwellers.

New Delhi: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected the construction activities of real estate projects across the country.

“In view of the situation created by the global pandemic, reverse migration of labourers and breakdown of construction materials supply chains, the construction activities of real estate projects were affected adversely across the country,” he said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

He said that to protect the interest of all stakeholders including homebuyers, the central government issued an advisory to all states and UTs and their Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERA) to treat COVID-19 pandemic as force majeure and automatically extend the registration and completion date of all projects registered under RERA for a period of 6 months where completion date expires on or after 25th March 2020 and to allow further extension of 3 months.

Further, as part of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, various other incentives and reliefs have been provided for the Real Estate Sector such as; special refinancing facility of Rs 10,000 crore at Reserve Bank of India’s Policy Repo Rate to National Housing Bank for supporting Housing Finance Companies (HFCs); Rs 45,000 crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for Microfinance Institutions, NBFC & HFCs; extension of Credit Link Subsidy Scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban till March 31 next year.

“All these measures aim to address the issue of liquidity disruptions to augment the flow of funds to the real estate sector,” added Puri.

In another reply, Puri said that the central government has taken several initiatives to provide assistance to the urban poor and slum dwellers.

He said that the government of India’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) mission focuses on providing basic amenities including water supply, sewerage and septage management in 500 cities selected across the country, including Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.

Swachh Bharat Mission - Urban (SBM-U) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) Mission are the two other flagship project of the central government which has been assisting States and UTs technically and financially in providing housing with basic civic amenities to eligible urban poor including slum dwellers.

“The main priority under AMRUT is to ensure that every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and enhanced coverage under sewerage and septage,” he said.

Government statistics state that there are 3,67,893 slum households in National Capital Territory of Delhi, 3,29,827 households in Chennai Municipal Corporation, 48,577 slum households Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, 11,35,514 in Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation and 3,00,755 slum households in Kolkata Municipal Corporation area.