According to the statement given by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the government permitted the construction of 16,488 houses in urban areas under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, taking the total number of houses approved so far to more than 1.13 crore. The ministry told the media that they took this decision at the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) meeting, attended by authorities from four states and union territories. On Monday, the houses under Beneficiary-Led Construction (BLC) and Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) verticals of PMAY-U were approved in the meeting. Durga Shanker Mishra, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary, addressing the participants in the meeting, said that the demand for approval has saturated in all states/UTs and work must be done expeditiously towards accomplishing all the projects within the specified time. In the statement, the ministry said that the construction of PMAY-U houses is in different stages. With this, the total number of approved houses under PMAY-U is now 113.06 lakh, of which 85.65 lakh have been grounded for construction, and over 51 lakh have been completed and given to the beneficiaries. As per the statement, the secretary also urged the union territories and states to participate in PMAY(U) Awards -100 Days Challenge enthusiastically. The secretary said that their major focus should be how can states/UTs make their cities saturated. Completion of projects must be aimed. Regarding Light House Projects (LHPs), Mishra said that states and union territories should promote the registration of stakeholders as Technograhis in huge numbers so that they get to learn about globally innovative technologies and adapt their use in the Indian context. Image Source Also read: PMAY-Urban: Around 3.88 lakh low-cost houses built in Andhra Pradesh Also read: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana: Uttarakhand CM lauds PMAY scheme