In a major push towards the Government’s Housing for All mission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has approved 1,46,582 additional pucca houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban 2.0 (PMAY-U 2.0) for 14 States/UTs, bringing total sanctions under the revamped scheme to 8.56 lakh.The decision came during the fourth meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC), chaired by Srinivas Katikithala, Secretary, MoHUA, at the Ministry’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg office. Senior officials, State Principal Secretaries, and PMAY-U Mission Directors participated in the meeting.The approved houses, spread across Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, will provide affordable, dignified homes equipped with basic amenities for urban poor families.Highlighting the need for integrated urban growth, Katikithala urged States/UTs to locate housing projects along infrastructure corridors to maximise connectivity, economic activity, and service access. JS&MD, HFA Kuldip Narayan stressed the importance of bringing forward proposals for group housing under the Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) vertical, particularly in metro cities.The meeting also underscored inclusivity and women’s empowerment. Of the houses approved, 75,417 are for women (including single women and widows), 1,166 for senior citizens in Uttar Pradesh, and 12 for transgender beneficiaries. Allotments also include 32,551 for SC, 5,025 for ST, and 58,375 for OBC beneficiaries.Launched in September 2024, PMAY-U 2.0 aims to provide financial support of up to Rs 0.2 million to ten million urban families who do not own a pucca house. The scheme operates through four verticals – Beneficiary-Led Construction (BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), Affordable Rental Housing (ARH), and Interest Subsidy Scheme (ISS). The latest approvals fall under BLC and AHP.To date, more than 120 lakh houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0, with 93.81 lakh already constructed and handed over to beneficiaries