The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has passed a $150 million loan to render access to inclusive, safe and affordable housing for the urban poor in Tamil Nadu. The state is crucial to India's economic growth, adding 8.54% to the country's GDP. Economic opportunities have surged rural-urban migration in Tamil Nadu, which already has one of the highest urbanisation rates in India. Tamil Nadu has a population of over 72 million, nearly half of which are living in urban areas. The rapid urbanisation and surge in the urban population will need adequate urban infrastructure and services involving housing. Ricardo Carlos Barba, ADB Principal Safeguards Specialist for South Asia, told the media that Tamil Nadu's housing shortfall estimates for 6.66% of the national deficit and when mapped against income levels, low-income households carry a maximum of the shortage. The goal is to render vulnerable and disadvantaged households access to inclusive, resilient, and sustainable housing infrastructure and services. The project will build housing units in nine different places through the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and relocate nearly 6,000 households unsafe to natural hazards to safer places. Additionally, it will support Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Town and Country Planning to develop regional strategies to map the state's economic and infrastructure development comprising environmental protection, disaster risk management, affordable housing and gender. The state government will invest a part of ADB's assistance as equity into the Tamil Nadu Shelter Fund to catalyse private sector financing and help investments chiefly in industrial housing and working women's hostels for low-income and migrant workers. Additionally, ADB will render a $1.5 million technical assistance (TA) grant from its Technical Assistance Special Fund to help the capacity building of government firms responsible for providing affordable housing and regional planning in Tamil Nadu. The TA will document successful approaches to affordable housing delivery, comprising the graduation programme for vulnerable relocated beneficiaries, that can be adopted in other cities and countries. Image Source Also read: Easy finance is the key to the success of affordable housing in India