NEW DELHI: The housing ministry has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states to start building houses for the poor in urban areas. The government has set the target to provide houses to two crore families belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS) in urban areas by 2022.

The states that are likely to gain are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. Moreover, six other states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand — have agreed to implement six key reforms relating to clearances and approval for housing projects to accelerate their construction.

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Officials said the announcement of list of cities and towns under Smart City Mission, AMRUT and Housing for All shows how there is a "clear convergence" of implementation of the three schemes. The nine states that have identified 305 cities, also account for 26 smart cities and 136 AMRUT cities.

Union housing minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, "This convergence of urban schemes helps in better utilization of resources resulting in visible improvement in urban areas. I am glad that state governments are resorting to convergence based approach."