Chouhan sanctions six lakh more houses for Andhra and starts a 177-home print pilot

Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday that the Centre would sanction another six lakh houses for Andhra Pradesh, on top of three lakh already being taken up under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin 2.0.

He was speaking at Burripalem in Tenali mandal, after he and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation for those three lakh houses. Chouhan split the extra six lakh into two blocks. Another three lakh would be sanctioned by the time the current construction was finished, and a further three lakh would be allocated to the state after that. The sequence matters. The second and third blocks are not a cheque. They are a promise tied to progress on the first block.

The same event launched a pilot the state and the Centre described as the first government-led 3D concrete-printed housing scheme in the country. A total of 177 houses using 3D concrete printing will be built at Burripalem and Obulanayudupalem. Against three lakh conventional houses, 177 printed ones are a trial, not a programme. They are large enough to show whether the printers, the mix and the local contractors can finish a street. They are too small to change the state's housing count.

PMAY-G pays for a pucca house for a rural household that meets the scheme's deprivation rules, with a fixed central share and a state share. A foundation stone for three lakh houses is the start of that paperwork, not the completion of it. Beneficiaries still have to be verified, sites still have to be free of dispute, and instalments still have to be released against stages of construction. Andhra has run this scheme before. The gap to watch is between houses sanctioned and houses completed with a toilet, a power connection and an occupancy, which is the point at which a foundation-stone speech becomes a roof.

The six lakh figure is the political number. Nine lakh houses, if every block is sanctioned and built, is a large addition to the rural stock in one state. Chouhan's wording does not release the second three lakh until the first three lakh are under way, and does not release the last three lakh until after that. A government that wants the headline can count nine lakh. A household in Tenali mandal can count the foundation that was actually laid on Sunday, and the instalment schedule that follows it.

The print pilot is the part with a technical claim. Government-led means the state, not a private developer, is the client for the 177 houses. 3D concrete printing cuts the time a wall takes and changes the labour mix. It does not remove the need for a foundation, a roof that meets the local rain, and a crew that can service the printer when it stops. Burripalem and Obulanayudupalem will show, inside a year, whether those houses cost less than a conventional PMAY-G unit and whether families will take them. If the unit cost is higher, the pilot stays a demonstration. If it is lower and the houses hold, the argument for printing any share of the next three lakh block writes itself.

Naidu's government has spent the year announcing investment totals, including 388 mega projects it says were approved since June 2024. Sunday's event was a different kind of number: houses with a minister, a village and a count. The count that can be audited is the three lakh under PMAY-G 2.0, the 177 in the print pilot, and the condition Chouhan put on the rest. The next six lakh arrive, on his own timetable, only as the first block moves.