Ambitious target to construct 12 mn rural houses

Under the first phase of the Prime Minister's Bharat Nirman programme, 6 million houses were to be constructed from 2005-06 to 2008-09 but the target was surpassed and over 7.1 million dwellings were built.

"It has now been proposed to double the target to construct 12 million houses during the next five-year period of phase two of Bharat Nirman starting from the current financial year," Joshi told reporters.

He was briefing the media on the performance of his ministry in the last quarter and the future plans. Called the Indira Awas Yojana, it is a flagship scheme of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government that envisages constructing housing units for families living below the poverty line in rural areas.

The financial allocation from the central government for the scheme in the current year is Rs 8,800 crore of which Rs 4,027 crore had been released up to Sep 10. The minister said: "This year's total allocation, along with Rs.2,428 crore released by the government as part of the economic stimulus package (in Feb) is sufficient to construct over 4 million units."