Guwahati: Assam Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Friday said over 18 lakh houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) have been sanctioned in the state so far, with construction of more than 11 lakh houses completed.

More than 19 lakh beneficiaries are covered under the PMAY-G in the state, Dass said.

Assam has sanctioned total 18,30,400 PMAY-G houses, since the inception of the programme and in alignment with the objective of the programme, ‘Housing for All’.

“Of these, 11,63,417 houses have been completed, of which 7,59,163 were done during the last two years,” he added.

He also added that the remaining are targeted to be completed by August 15 this year.

Since the fiscal 2022-23 till date, the state has incurred an expenditure of Rs 12,504.79 crore for implementation of the PMAY-G, Dass said.

He also said that the state government has so far provided land to 40,096 landless PMAY-G beneficiaries.

At least seven clusters have been completed so far covering 99 beneficiaries and work in 19 clusters are going on, covering 838 beneficiaries, across 10 districts, Minister said.

“Also, we have formulated a standard operating procedure (SOP) for PMAY-G housing in tea garden areas. So far, 81,638 beneficiaries have been covered under it,” the minister added.

He also said that the state government is planning a mass ‘griha pravesh’ ceremony for more than 2.5 lakh completed houses.

Over 3,400 masons have also been trained in the state to meet locally the demand for skilled manpower for constructing the PMAY-G houses, he said.

“A regional conference of nine eastern region states will be held in Assam on June 2-3 to monitor the process of implementation of the scheme as well as to share best practices amongst the states,” Dass added.