“Need for single-window clearance for affordable housing”, says Urjit Patel
Terming affordable housing scheme as a ‘very important initiative’, the Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel on Wednesday called for a separate single window mechanism for clearance of affordable housing projects as many are stuck at state government bodies. He said that affordable housing needs greater focus and has strong multiplier impact on the growth. Under the pradhan mantri awas yojana, government is targeting at housing for all by 2022. “I think, we need a time bound, single window clearance of this very important initiative, which has the potential for growth is going to come into place,” said Urjit Patel, Governor, RBI at press briefing post announcement of the bi-monthly monetary policy. Approval time usually ranges from six to 12 months. The process and time required for permissions is the same for all projects including affordable, middle income or luxury. “We have mentioned that we could have stronger growth performance if some of these things are taken forward in particular removing infra bottlenecks, finding measures to reinvigorate private investment and provide thrust to affordable housing initiative of the government, which has a potential for very strong multiplier effects,” added Patel. Affordable housing segment is booming with the push from government. According to industry estimate, disbursements in affordable housing of loans below Rs 10 lakhs have grown 43% in the last financial year. Overall housing loans grew by 23% while home loans above Rs 25 lakh saw a marginal decline of 1% during the last financial year.
Tags : News/Views