NEW DELHI: The Centre has approved construction of nearly 1.12 lakh more affordable houses for urban poor in eight states under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, with Andhra Pradesh bagging the largest share of over 37,000 housing units, an official said on Friday.

According to the housing and urban affairs ministry, which is mandated to implement the scheme, the total number of houses being funded under the PMAY (Urban) is close to 55 lakh across the country so far.

The approval was given in a meeting of the central sanctioning and monitoring committee (CSMC) of PMAY(U) yesterday.

Last month, the committee also sanctioned construction of 2.67 lakh affordable houses for the poor in 10 states.

"The ministry of housing and urban affairs has approved the construction of 1,12,213 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)," according to a statement issued by the ministry.

It stated that Andhra Pradesh has been sanctioned 37,719 houses while the sanction for Haryana is 19,858.

The number of houses sanctioned for Madhya Pradesh is 18,375, Maharashtra 12,238 houses, Chhattisgarh 10,632 houses and Karnataka 8,761 houses, it stated.

"Approvals given for J&K stands at 4,442 houses while Arunachal Pradesh has been sanctioned 188 houses," the statement added.

The ministry said that central assistance of Rs 1,683.18 crore will be provided to execute these projects.

"With these proposed houses, cumulative houses under PMAY(U) would become 54,95,443 after final approval from CSMC," it added.

In the last CSMC meeting, Madhya Pradesh was sanctioned 59,421 houses, while 55,296 housing units were authorised for Gujarat.

