43% of the residences under PMAY-Urban finished

Out of the 1.51 lakh units assigned so far, Assam has finished building 65,469 houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-U (PMAY-U). Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Ashok Singhal stated at a news conference that Assam has received 1.51 lakh dwellings since the program's inception. “In total, we have finished 65,469 units, of which 32,003 residences were built in the past year. Approximately 32,000 additional units are in various stages of completion,” he added. According to Singhal, a total of INR 2.94 million was used in 2022-2023 as a direct benefit transfer for the building of the housing units.

He said that on the property it purchased from the defunct Nagaon Paper Mill of the Hindustan Paper Corp., the government intends to build a satellite township at Jagiroad in the Nagaon district. “A 1,000-acre Amrit-Guwahati Integrated City of the highest calibre will be built here. Surbana Jurong, a consultant based in Singapore, has been hired by us to draught the master plan, which should be completed by 31 March this year,” Singhal said. All of the state's districts were given instructions last year to draught an irrigation master plan; 28 districts have already submitted, and the remaining will execute within the next month, according to the minister, who also oversees the Irrigation Department.

“Our target is to create irrigation facilities for 10 lakh tonnes of paddy across the state. So far, irrigation potential has been created in 7.86 lakh hectares, but many of these schemes are defunct now,” he added.