Housing for all by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised under ambitious Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. However, the scheme is reeling under a huge lag, a report has shown. So far, of the 1 crore target, construction of 64 lakh houses have been sanctioned but only 12 lakh have been built while 23 lakh are under construction, a report by rating agency Crisil showed.

Moreover, to achieve the target the government will need Rs 1 lakh crore in the next three years. “Our calculations show the government will have to garner around Rs 1 lakh crore over the next three years if it has to achieve the target of building 1 crore houses. This is going to be a tall ask given the current fiscal arithmetic,” said Prasad Koparkar, Senior Director, Crisil Research.

The scheme is also facing headwinds such as unavailability of land in prime areas, low participation of private developers, bidding mechanism, stringent cost and time among others, the report added.

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Meanwhile, the scheme is believed to have generated employment for over six crore people in the country, the government told Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said as per the 2014 study report of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), for every Rs. 1 lakh invested in the housing sector, 2.65 new jobs are created in the economy.

“On this basis, it is estimated that a total of 6.07 crore employment might have so far been generated through implementation of the PMAY (U) across the country,” Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a written reply to the Parliament.