The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the Maharashtra government's town planning and infrastructure development authority, has secured a fund-based Line of Credit (LOC) worth Rs 5,000 crore from the State Bank of India (SBI) for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) mass housing project in Navi Mumbai. This funding is likely to help in speeding up the current project, which includes more than 1.12 lakh homes. The interest rate for this financing is 6%, the lowest rate for a line of credit of this magnitude in the public sector. This financing has aided in the completion of the financial aspects of this Rs 30,000 crore big housing plan. The project will be financed with a Rs 4,000 crore injection from CIDCO, Rs 5,000 crore from SBI's Line of Credit, and the rest funds from the project's internal accruals. The town planning council is developing this housing scheme at several Navi Mumbai nodes based on the idea of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), with the complete project being constructed in three phases. There will be 23,500 units in the first phase, 67,000 in the second phase, and 22,000 in the third phase. Around 35% of these homes will be designated for the economically disadvantaged, 15% for the lower-income group (LIG), and the remaining homes would be sold on the free market. To assure end-to-end services throughout and after the selling process, CIDCO has hired a private firm to handle marketing and consumer relationship management for the programme. As a result, CIDCO is the first government agency to take a professional approach to the housing plan. The town planning organisation has already begun executing the strategy on several fronts, including site availability, budgetary planning, legislative permissions, and project monitoring mechanisms. The first phase of the plan is complete, construction on the second phase is ongoing, and the third phase will begin soon. Although CIDCO uses a self-sustaining financial development approach to conduct high-cost infrastructure development projects, the fund-based line of credit from SBI will cover any unforeseen situations and guarantee that the project is completed as quickly as possible. The massive housing project spans 11 significant locations in the Navi Mumbai and Panvel municipal regions. The current Harbour, Trans-Harbour Railway, and the future Nerul-Uran railway lines, as well as state highways, provide strong access to these housing complexes. Residents of these housing complexes would save a large amount of time travelling to the various commercial areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The developments are also near many employment hubs, including the future Navi Mumbai International Airport, the International Corporate Park, Taloja MIDC, and the JNPT and JNPT expansions. Image Source Also read: PNB Housing Finance board approves raising Rs 2,000 cr by issuing bonds