If you were shocked to hear that the 11,000-odd inventory of houses that the Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority has planned to auction, rent, or sell at a discount to release its locked investments after ten years of accumulating, then wait until you hear about what the Delhi Development Authority has done to accumulate its unsold stock of 40,000-plus housing units worth Rs.180 billion! The Delhi Development Authority already had 16,000-plus flats in its old unsold inventory as they were not selling due to an inconvenient location with no Metro connectivity and extremely small sizes. But that did not deter the DDA from making another 24,000 units! The value tied up in these 40,000 flats is Rs.180 billion. By this estimated value, the flats would be in the range of odd Rs.4.5 million. Our housing shortage is 19 million housing units currently, which is expected to double by 2030. At this rate, with the Government trying to play 'builder,' we will see housing units pile up as unsold inventory and a ballooning deficit in housing units. However, the public sector unit NBCC is proving to be an outlier, as it recently announced sales of 5,000 units for Rs.29 billion, thus completing 80 per cent of the inventory across several residential projects of the erstwhile Amrapali Group, where it was appointed as a project management company under the supervision of the Supreme Courtappointed court receiver. While there are several other schemes rolled out by several states, none can match the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scale and execution. As elections are nearing, the execution is turning feverish. In order to achieve the target of “Housing for All” in rural areas, the Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) with effect from 1st April 2016 to provide assistance to eligible rural households with an overall target to construct 29.5 million pucca houses with basic amenities by 31st March 2024. Against the mandated target of 29.5 million houses, more than 29.4 million houses have already been sanctioned,and construction of 25 million houses has also been completed as of 29th November 2023. Under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U), which is a demand-driven scheme without a target for construction of houses, a total of 11.863 million houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-U, of which 7.815 million houses have been constructed or delivered as of 20th November 2023. The scheme period, which had earlier set a deadline of March 2022, has been extended up to December 2024.Given the actual physical delivery of 29.4 million rural houses and 11.9 million urban houses, the infusion of welfare has sown the seeds of demand for cement and other building materials over the past several years, which have accelerated post-COVID. (See Cover Story on pg 42)In 2024 globally, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls as at least 64 countries (plus the European Union)—representing a combined population of about 49 per cent of the people in the world—are meant to hold national elections including India and its next-door neighbours like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Indonesia, Taiwan and also the USA. So, what does 2024 hold for the construction sector: Technology in construction will gather pace Railways projects will supersede Road projects Social welfare infrastructure like hospitals, hotels, schools, institutions will grow • Road projects will slow down Metro Rail, High-Speed Rail, Logistics, and Corridors will define infrastructure. Best wishes for a constructive 2024!Follow me on twitter @PratapPadode