Homebuyers have welcomed the decision of the Maharashtra government to extend its flagship affordable housing scheme known as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY Urban) till September 2022. Last month, the Centre had announced to Maharashtra about PMAY-Urban being extended till September 2022, said officials from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), the nodal agency for implementing PMAY in Maharashtra. They indicated that the PMAY scheme may be extended until 2024. 28-year-old professional Maitrayee Iyer from Mumbai said that she plans to own a house in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and to avail of the advantage under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS). Chief Engineer of MHADA, Shivkumar Ade, said that the PMAY Urban scheme has been extended until September 2022 in Maharashtra. According to officials from MHADA, the Centre has granted a preliminary extension until September 2022. There are possibilities that the scheme might be extended until 2024, and the Centre might open to us in the coming days. The Maharashtra government had set a target of building 19.40 lakh houses under the PMAY scheme by 2022. According to the MHADA data, under the PMAY scheme, up to December 2021, all 1,161 projects consisting of 13 lakh dwelling units have been sanctioned, of which construction work of 4.86 lakh dwelling units is finished, and that of 2.12 lakh dwelling units is in progress. The Maharashtra government's housing department has issued a notification to fast track the permissions of the PMAY projects. Though the extension period given is less, we need to perform towards approving the projects keeping the uniformity and smooth procedure in mind, the notification said. The notification said an additional force of nine engineers would be stationed at MHADA that will consent to the projects from the current team of around six engineers. As per the current procedure, MHADA is the nodal agency, and all the urban local bodies, including the civic body and councils after sanctioning proposals for PMAY housing projects, send them to the PMAY cell of MHADA, which in turn sends them to the state government's committee for permission. Meanwhile, real estate developers in Mumbai welcomed the PMAY scheme extension but thought that high land prices are a challenge in Mumbai. Image Source Also read: Govt to approve 3,500 more homes for Dharwad under PMAY