The Centre Friday sanctioned over 2.5 lakh more affordable houses in 10 states under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (U).

According to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, the total number of houses being funded under the PMAY (Urban) is close to 84 lakh across the country so far.

The approval was given in a meeting of the central sanctioning and monitoring committee (CSMC) chaired by ministry secretary Durga Shanker Mishra.

"The flagship urban missions, particularly PM Awas Yojana-Urban, are #TransformingUrbanLandscape at an unprecedented pace. In the CSMC Meeting held today we sanctioned over 2.5 lakh more houses in 10 States (sic)," Mishra tweeted.

According to him, out of 84 lakh houses sanctioned so far, Uttar Pradesh is the biggest beneficiary state in the country with 13 lakh houses, followed by Andhra Pradesh with over 12 lakh houses.

"Total number of houses sanctioned now under this visionary Mission of Hon'ble PM stands at nearly 84 lakhs.

"Out of these, UP with 13 lakhs houses is the biggest beneficiary State followed by Andhra Pradesh at 12+ lakhs houses sanctioned," the secretary added in his tweet.

Earlier this week, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that the target of constructing one crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) can be achieved by 2020-end, two years before the deadline.

The NDA government has spent 554 per cent more in five years than the UPA government had in 10 years on urban development projects, the housing and urban affairs minister had also said.

The PMAY (U), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015, aims at ensuring housing for all by 2022 by providing financial assistance to beneficiaries.

The government has set a target of one crore houses in urban areas across the country over a period of seven years from 2015 to 2022.