Government approves roof top solar panels for 10,000 houses in Tamil Nadu

In a first of its kind under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Awas Yojana (Urban), the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has approved fitting of roof top solar energy panels over 10,000 houses belonging to Economically Weaker Sections in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs.253 crore. This ‘Green’ proposal of the State Government was approved by an Inter-Ministerial Central Sanctioning & Monitoring Committee (CSMC) chaired by Dr. Nandita Chatterjee, Secretary (HUPA). Unit Cost of greening these 10,000 EWS houses in 157 Town Panchayats is estimated to be Rs.2.53 lakh per house. Of this, Ministry of HUPA will provide an assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh per house while the State Government will contribute Rs.0.60 lakh and the beneficiary’s contribution will be Rs.0.43 lakh. The Committee today also approved construction of 7,204 houses under Affordable Housing in Partnerhsip (AHP) component of PMAY (Urban) in 9 cities and towns at a total cost of Rs.572 crore with cost of construction ranging from Rs. 7.22 lakhs to Rs.8.46 lakhs per house. Of this, central assistance will be Rs.1.50 lakh per house and the rest will be borne by the state government and beneficiaries. As per the Committee’s approval, another 6,272 houses of Economically Weaker Sections will be improved with required additional construction at a total cost of Rs.188 crore under the ‘Beneficiary led Construction’ component of urban housing mission in 9 cities. For this, central government will provide an assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh per each beneficiary while the state government and beneficiary will contribute Rs.0.60 lakh and 0.90 lakh per house. Of the total cost of construction/improvement of 23,476 houses in Tamil Nadu approved, central government will provide a total assistance of Rs.352.14 crore. Affordable houses approved for construction/improvement are: Chennai-4,635, Pudukkottai-1,920, Namakkal-1,392, Madurai-1,362, Ranipet-1,086, Tiruchirapalli-896, Vellore-521, Erode-448, Coimbattore-356, Nagapattinam-336, Thanjavur-256, Hosur-190 and Viruddhnagar-78.