New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) The Centre will sign agreements with states within a month for the construction of affordable living spaces for the poor and migrant workers in urban areas under the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes scheme, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said during an online media interaction that in Delhi, there are around 32,000 flats available under the scheme while Faridabad has around 1,000 dwelling units.

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He said the memoranda of agreement will be signed with states within a month.

He said that besides government-funded flats, vacant plots can also be developed to construct flats under the scheme, but states will have to choose "use permission" in their respective master plan to allow the same.

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The ARHC scheme, which has been launched under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban, will help provide affordable living spaces for the poor and migrant workers.

The secretary said the government has set a target of constructing or retrofitting housing units under the ARHC scheme till 2022.

Last month, the ministry had issued guidelines to implement ARHS in the country.

The secretary said that expression of interest (EOI) has been sent to states and union territories, adding that rent will be decided by local bodies.

In May, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman had announced the launch of the scheme to provide homes to migrant labourers/urban poor at affordable rent.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)