Almost 50% of the affordable housing units constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) remain unoccupied, according to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs' submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Launched in 2015, PMAY-U aimed to complete its target of 12.269 million houses by 2022 but has been extended until December 31, 2024. Of the 8.832 million houses completed so far, significant portions under key verticals remain vacant. For instance, under the Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) vertical, only 54% of the 901,000 completed houses have been occupied. Similarly, in the In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) vertical, 70% of the 67,806 completed units remain unoccupied. The Ministry attributed this vacancy to several factors, including incomplete infrastructure, delays in allotment, and unwillingness of beneficiaries. It emphasised that state governments are responsible for providing the necessary trunk infrastructure, such as roads and utilities, to make the houses habitable. States like Telangana, with a large number of unoccupied houses, have also faced delays in finalising allotments. The Parliamentary Committee, chaired by TDP MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, urged the Ministry to address these challenges, stressing that unoccupied housing undermines the mission's purpose. It called for better coordination between the Central and State governments to resolve infrastructure and allotment bottlenecks. In response to these issues, the Ministry launched PMAY-U 2.0 in September 2024, with a target to construct 10 million additional urban homes over the next five years, incorporating lessons from the original scheme. (Indian Express)