The apex real estate industry body CREDAI has reiterated its pledge for realising the Prime Minister’s dream of ‘Housing for All’, and has committed an investment of over RS 70,000 crore in 375-plus new affordable housing projects. These projects would be spread across India and would involve development of over 8.60 crore sft of land and more than 20.60 crore sft of construction, to build a total of 2,37,000 houses. CREDAI is in dialogue with State Bank of India (SBI), its national banking partner, to create special financial packages both for home loans and for construction finance.
Jaxay Shah, president of CREDAI, has said, “We are all set to embark on a journey of a Naya Daur for the real estate industry against the backdrop of introduction of various policy reforms which are aimed at facilitating growth. This presents a huge opportunity, not just for our members or our industry, but for the nation itself. India has a recorded shortage of 20 million homes and our endeavour is to ensure that we overcome this shortage by placing consumers at the center of all our efforts. Our 375 housing schemes will realise the dreams of millions of Indians who are waiting to own a house.”
The project was inaugurated by Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, at the investiture ceremony of CREDAI’s new executive team. The event was also attended by Nitin Patel, deputy CM, Gujarat and Shankarbhai Chaudhry, Minister for Environment and Urban Development, Gujarat. Naidu, while congratulating CREDAI for the initiative, said, “I would like to congratulate CREDAI on the initiative being taken to align the real estate industry with the objective of ‘Housing for All’ of the Government of India.”
Working on the shortage of skilled workforce, CREDAI with its skilling partner PNB Housing Finance Limited (PNBHFL) has entered into a MoU for skilling 8,000 construction workers during 2017-18. CREDAI has so far trained more than 50,000 trainees at over 100 construction sites across 30 cities, and aims to train one lakh construction workers this year. Apart from on-site skilling at construction sites, CREDAI has also started skilling of unemployed youth by setting up off-site skill training centers in places from where labour is traditionally sourced. The first such centres have been set up in Murshidabad and Medinipur in Bengal, Nashik in Maharashtra, Vijayawada in Andhra and Bhiwadi in the NCR region.
8,000 Construction Workers to be Trained under MoU Between PNB Housing Finance & CREDAI
PNB Housing Finance has signed an MoU with CREDAI to train 8,000 construction workers pan India. This is in line with its commitment of improving the lives of construction workers. The announcement was made at the investiture ceremony of CREDAI executive 2017-19 in Ahmedabad, attended by Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation & Information and Broadcasting and Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister of Gujarat.
The training programme, supported by PNB Housing under its CSR initiative, is aimed at providing skill training to construction workers across India. The skill training will be provided in the trade of masonry, bar bending, shuttering and electricals. The programme aims to upgrade skills of construction workers to meet global benchmarks, which in return shall increase the productivity of the workforce.
Sanjaya Gupta, managing director of PNB Housing Finance, said that the company is focused on improving lives of the construction workers and their families. “Through our CSR initiatives, we are continuously working towards upgrading their skills, providing them with necessary trainings, and creating a conducive working environment for them.” The collaboration with CREDAI, said Gupta, is one more such step aimed at overall upliftment and empowerment of construction workers across India.
Working on the vision to make India the world’s skill capital, CREDAI has been focusing on skill development and conducting on-site skill upgradation programmes for construction workers. “Beginning with the Kushal programme in Pune, CREDAI has till date trained more than 50,000 workers in over 30 cities for more than 100 member developers. Here onwards we plan to skill one lakh workers every year,” said Jitendra Thakker, member-EC, CREDAI. “In this endeavour, we are being supported by our long standing funding partner PNBHFL, which has committed to support the skilling of 8,000 workers during 2017-18 in an MoU signed with CREDAI,” he added.
CREDAI is exploring the possibility of setting up more such centres in the states of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and places like Dahod in Gujarat, and Gulbarga in Karnataka. The Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED), Government of Gujarat has also approved CREDAI’s proposal to skill unemployed youth in construction related trades with an aim to make them employable, and also to undertake on-site skill upgradation programs for construction workers in Gujarat.
CREDAI Clean City Movement Limited (CCCM Ltd) is being set up to promote clean and green India drive at the national level. The CCCM plans to cover a million households in 30 cities over the next two years. Further, CREDAI has also signed an MoU with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), which is part of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), for sustainable environment development. “I am pleased that CREDAI is adopting a holistic approach to contribute to the country’s development. Their focus on Government of India’s vision of ‘Housing for All’ and incorporating Gujarat cities in their CREDAI Clean City Movement (CCCM) to make Swachch Gujarat and Swastha Gujarat is commendable,” said Nitin Patel, deputy CM of Gujarat.
Shankarbhai Chaudhry, Minister for Environment and Urban Development, Gujarat, added, “CREDAI’s strong commitment to our economic growth deserves appreciation. Their efforts in the direction of reducing carbon footprint by tying up with CII’s Indian Green Building rating system for green affordable housing can definitely become a game-changer.”
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