New Delhi, Nov 24 (IANS): Over 30 lakh houses have been sanctioned till now under the central government's flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme, Union Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said here on Friday.

The Minister said more than four lakh houses have already been constructed.

Speaking at the launch of a national workshop on the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and the Swachh Bharat Mission, Puri said more than 15 lakh houses of those sanctioned are in various stages of construction.

"Since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana {PMAY (U)} on June 25, 2015, the government has sanctioned a total of 30.76 lakhs houses across all verticals. Currently, 15.65 lakh houses have been grounded and are at various stages of construction and about 4.13 lakh houses have been constructed since the launch of the mission," he said.

The Minister said the requirement for urban housing has been pegged at 12 million (1.2 crore) and the government is pursuing the reforms such as stamp duty exemption and single window clearance to ease the housing process.

The workshop was held to deliberate on the "bottlenecks and roadblocks" which are "impeding the progress" of projects related to 'on location' (in-site) slum rehabilitation and affordable housing in partnership.

The government's 'housing for all' scheme is divided into two components, the other being PMAY (Rural).

As per the 2011 census, 13.92 million households live in 33,510 slums across the country.

The target of the PMAY (Urban) scheme is "essentially the urban poor" through in-situ rehabilitation along with an assistance of Rs 100,000 per house.