Of the Rs 20,000 crore being handled by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the break-up of the first installment of Rs 1,844.16 crore has been released. Rs 1,138.27 crore is being allocated to to 37 cities under the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) sub-mission and Rs 705.89 crore to 194 cities under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP).

The Ministry has so far committed a sum of Rs 6,943.62 crore to the two sub-missions — Rs 5,224.75 crore to BSUP and Rs 1,718.87 crore to IHSDP. While the Basic Services to Urban Poor scheme covers the 63 biggest cities, the IHSDP covers the other cities that are not covered under BSUP (5,098 cities).

A total of 426 projects spread across 288 cities in 17 states have been approved so far. The total cost of these approved projects will be Rs 12,905.28 crore. About 6,98,067 houses will be constructed within the projects approved so far. Under the BSUP sub-mission, 169 projects have been approved in 38 cities belonging to 17 states. The total project cost of the approved projects under the BSUP mission will be Rs 10,498.45 crore and 5,20,248 houses will be constructed in the projects approved so far. Under the IHSDP sub-mission, 257 projects have been approved in 250 cities within 16 states. The total cost of the approved projects under the IHSDP sub-mission is Rs 2,406.83 crore.

According to a technical group of the ministry, the total housing shortage in the country is of the order of 24.7 million. The JNNURM scheme will be able to cover about 6-8 per cent of this population. Altogether, about 1.5-2 million houses and allied infrastructure, including roads, storm water drains, water supply, community halls, and health centres will be developed under the scheme.