House panel seeks details of rental housing scheme

House panel seeks details of rental housing scheme

Subject :Polity

Context: A Parliamentary panel has asked the government to clarify how many of the 66 proposals received under the Affordable Rental Housing Scheme launched for the urban poor, especially migrant workers, during the COVID-19 pandemic have been approved by their respective local urban bodies.

Affordable Rental Housing Scheme

• AHRC is a sub-scheme under PM Awas Yojana – Urban.
• Under the scheme, existing vacant government-funded housing complexes will be converted in ARHCs through Concession Agreements for 25 years.
• The concessionaire will make the complexes livable by repair/retrofit and maintenance of rooms and filling up infrastructure gaps like water, sewer/ septage, sanitation, road etc.
• States/UTs will select concessionaire through transparent bidding.
• Complexes will revert to ULB after 25 years to restart next cycle like earlier or run on their own.

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 ARHCs.

Significance of AHRC

• Usually, these migrants live in slums, informal/ unauthorized colonies or peri-urban areas to save rental charges.
• They spend a lot of time on roads by walking/ cycling to workplaces, risking their lives to cut on the expenses.
• ARHCs will create a new ecosystem in urban areas making housing available at affordable rent close to the place of work.
• Investment under ARHCs is expected to create new job opportunities.
• ARHCs will cut down unnecessary travel, congestion and pollution.