Amrit Abhijat

Amrit began in the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the IAS. He joined the Jt. Magistrate, Land Revenue Management & District Administration at Mathura in August 1997, and served there for nineteen months. In May 2002, he was appointed as the District Magistrate (DM) of Mirzapur.[3] Later on he served as the District Magistrate of Deoria, Hamirpur, Allahabad, Jhansi, Mujaffarnagar, Kanpur and Agra too. He has gained a lot of admiration because of his working style. As a civil servant he is known for implementation of various innovative ideas such as "hello vikas" at Mujaffarnagar, "zilaprashaasan agra" Facebook id at agra to create a common platform for public convenience. In his capacity as District Magistrate (2010-2011), and subsequently Commissioner Agra Division (2011-2012), Amrit oversaw the land acquisition, project modalities and execution of the Yamuna expressway from Agra till the end of the division. Later as Tourism Secretary 2014-2015, with an eye to promoting longer stays and greater interest in Uttar Pradesh, he conceptualized and promoted the Heritage Arc - the signature tourism product of Uttar Pradesh linking together Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi. The Tourism Policy and Heritage Tourism policy written by him during his tenure helped revitalize the tourism sector in Uttar Pradesh. Amrit Abhijat is a voracious reader and a bibliophile. He is also a capable writer and his articles have been published time to time in various newspapers and magazines like Times of India, kurukshetra, yojna etc.

In the year 2012 he also acquired a master's degree in Governance and Development from IDS SUSSEX.

Since December 2015, Mr. Abhijat is serving as Joint Secretary and Mission Director in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Government of India.[4] As Joint Secretary and Mission Director the Ministry has assigned him to implement the Pradhan MantriAwasYojana–(Urban). The PMAY-(U) emanates from the vision of the Hon. Prime minister of India, Sh. Narendra Modi to provide “Housing For All” by the year 2022.. He has been assigned this massive responsibility to help the states aggregate and formulate the demand of housing shortage and make them into projects as per the guidelines of PMAY. This is put before the Central committee headed by the Secretary of Housing at the Government of India level. As Mission Director the critical examination of conditionalities compliances of legal nature and the implementation plan of the project prior to approval is done at this level. The Pradhan MantriAwasYojana -Urban is one of the largest housing programmes in the world. The mission presently has a validated demand of 10 million housing units by 2022.The Government of India has already sanctioned 8 million dwelling units, of which 4.5 million are in different stages of progress while close to 2.5 million has been completed and delivered. The amount of funding required for this kind of quantum leap led the Government to create for a provision to fund it from both the Budgetary as well as Extra budgetary resources based on Governments decisions. The success of the PMAY mission can be gauged from the pace delivery of houses and the joy it has brought to millions on getting a house of their own across the country .

The Global Housing Technology challenge -India

As Joint Secretary and Mission Director of PMAY he was instrumental in fulfilling the Vision of The Prime Minister of holding a technology challenge on Construction in Delhi on March,2-3 2019.”The Global Housing Technology Challenge “-India provides for an expo and conference where all the stakeholders and exhibits in new Technology get to meet and work .This was inaugurated by the Prime Minister .Many leading countries in housing technology countries, exhibitors and delegates participated.. The challenge also will go on to support the ‘Light House Projects’ in 6 states after the recommends of evaluation committee Technologies which have participated. In addition, the Ministry will support the accelerator and Incubation support through Knowledge partners, the World Resource Institute (WRI) and the IITs. It will bring about a paradigm shift in the manner construction is perceived, and implemented in India.[5][6]

Housing for All aims to complete construction of houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) by 2022[7]

A city cannot be treated as smart, unless its citizens are provided with decent pucca housing at affordable cost. Presence of slums in a city is another area of concern to provide the city a clean image. PMAY (U) is dealing with such issues by providing pucca houses equipped with basic services to every eligible city dweller in both slum and non-slum areas, says Amrit Abhijat, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, Housing for All, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, in this interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the role of Housing for All or Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY U) in order to have a comprehensive development of Cities?

“By the time the Nation completes 75 years of its independence in 2022, there should not be any family without owning a house for his living” is the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi. A city, free from kutcha, semi pucca and temporary dwelling units with provision of adequate housing, is integral part of holistic development of city, as it depicts the façade of the city. A city cannot be treated as smart, unless its citizens are provided with decent pucca housing at affordable cost. Presence of slums in a city is another area of concern to provide the city a clean image. PMAY(U) is dealing with such issues by providing pucca houses equipped with basic services to every eligible city dweller in both slum and non-slum areas. Sh. Hardeep S Puri, Hon’ble Minister of State (I/C), Housing and Urban Affairs, has been guiding and supporting us in our pursuit of integrated Urban Transformation. Comprehensive development of cities requires multifocal approach consisting of housing as well as basic infrastructures. A number of flagship schemes have been launched by Government of India such as Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT, SBM, HRIDAY for integrated development of cities, recognising the contribution of cities in the GDP of the country. These schemes are mandated to provide basic infrastructures such as water supply, drainage, SWM, roads, public transport, electricity and application of technology in management of these infrastructures smartly. Under the leadership of Sh. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, PMAY (U), while contributing towards betterment of the cities, is marching towards achieving the goal of “Housing for All” by 2022.

Give us an overview of the present status of the scheme, especially with respect to Haryana in general and Gurugram in specific.

PMAY (U) has witnessed remarkable achievement over last four years since its launch on June 25, 2015. A total of 85.17 lakh houses have been sanctioned by Government of India till now under all 4 verticals of the scheme, where 51 lakh have been grounded and 26.5 lakh houses are completed. As far as Haryana is concerned, a total of 2.64 lakh houses has been approved where share of AHP projects is highest with 1.8 lakh houses. A total of 38,346 houses are grounded and about 16,000 houses are already completed. A total of 23,715 houses have been approved for Gurugram and approximately 3,700 are completed.

What is the role of Public-Private Partnership in the scheme?

Availability of land is essential for the success of affordable housing sector in the country. In order to promote the affordable housing and unleash the potential of land available with the private sector, MoHUA has circulated eight PPP models. Under which, the private developer is allowed to construct houses on his own land and seek benefit of PMAY (U) under the banner of affordable housing and avail various exemptions and concessions. Presently, a total of 257 projects have been approved under PPP model with 4.39 lakh houses in various States.

What are the latest technology deployments in your department? How are these contributing towards the execution of the project? A technology Sub-Mission under PMAY (U) has been set up to facilitate adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and building materials for faster and quality construction of houses. Building Material and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), an autonomous body under MoHUA is responsible for certifying and promotion of new construction technologies in the country. As of now, 16 new construction technologies have been certified by the agency and SoR has been released by CPWD.

A Global Housing Technology Challenge- India (GHTC-India) was launched to identify and mainstream the best alternate construction technologies PMAY(U) House in Odisha from across the globe for a paradigm shift and an enabling eco-system in the construction sector. The year 2019-20 was declared as “Construction Technology Year” by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. Subsequently, six Light House Projects at six locations in the country will be executed for demonstrating and delivering ready to live houses in a shorter time, with lower cost and with better quality in a sustainable manner. These projects will act as a live laboratory for learning and replicating the best construction technology. These disruptive technologies will transform the housing construction practices by impacting the speed, scale and quality of houses. The Potential Future Technologies will be provided with Incubation and Acceleration support through Product Development, Networking Opportunities and Marketing Support following the principle of ‘Lab to Land’.

What are the challenges of the scheme?

1. Land: Availability of encumbrance free land for affordable housing projects in the cities is one of the major challenges under the scheme. There is scarcity of Government land within the city limits. MoHUA has developed eight PPP models to unleash the potential of land available with private sector. Further, coverage of the scheme has also been extended to include planning/ Development areas to make more land available for affordable housing.

2. Slum Redevelopment: In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) component of the Mission envisages redevelopment of slums using land as a resource. Such strategy could not get momentum due to issues regarding land. A multi-layered strategy is being developed by the Ministry to deal with slum redevelopment issue as per the size of the town.

3. Unforeseen Challenges: Natural calamities such as earthquakes, floods and cyclones have devastating impact not only on communities by destruction of infrastructure, displacements and homelessness, but also affects the pace of the implementation of the mission.

As Ministry is committed to construct more than 1 crore houses under the Mission, what is the financing arrangement? The current validated demand is 1.12 crore as per the demand assessment carried out by the States/UTs. Apart from the budgetary allocations, a National Urban Housing Fund (NUHF) has been created to mobilise Rs 60,000 crore as Extra-Budgetary Resources (EBR) to ensure smooth flow of resources to the projects where Rs 28,000 crore has already been drawn.

Is there any provision for recognising best performance of the State/UT in the Mission?

The role of States/UTs and other stakeholders needs appreciation and it's all happening with their support and coordinated effort. The Mission has instituted PMAY (U) awards to recognise the best performance of the State/UTs and cities in implementation of the scheme in addition to the CLSS Award for recognising the contribution and performance of Banks/ PLIs. Six categories of award will be given which includes State, Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat, special awards and beneficiaries level awards. A separate mobile app has been developed where beneficiary can upload selfie and testimonial from his/her smart phone. The best houses constructed by the beneficiaries in each State will be awarded.

What is the way forward with respect to the HFA mission in the coming years?

The focus of HFA mission in coming years is to ensure completion and delivery of all the houses as per the validated demand in States/UTs by the year 2022. Any additional demand based on eligibility in forthcoming years will also be considered in the scheme. Secondly, there will be focused intervention in slums towards deslumming India. A detailed strategy is being worked out by the Mission to redevelop the slums in partnership with State governments, community and private developers.

With respect to promotion of construction technology, the Light House Projects will be executed and upscaling will be done. In order to mainstream these technologies, few courses on new technology are being launched in association of School of Planning and Architecture (SPA). The potential technologies will be given incubation and accelerator support through IITs to further develop these technologies and make them market ready.[8]