Ministry
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the Government of India's apex authority for urban policy: town planning, urban housing, water supply and sanitation, urban transport and the finances of urban local bodies. It is the nodal ministry for India's flagship city programmes — the Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT, the urban Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and metro rail — and commands one of the Union Budget's larger capital lines, much of it for mass-transit and housing. Because most Indian urban infrastructure is co-financed and steered from this desk, it is a seat of power over how the country urbanises.
Updated
- Headquarters
- Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi
- Budget 2025-26
- Rs 96,777 crore (52% above 2024-25 revised estimate)
- Metro/MRTS share
- Rs 34,807 crore (about 36% of the ministry's budget)
- Operational metro network
- ~1,095 km, world's third-largest network (2025)
Role
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the Union government’s nodal ministry for how India’s towns and cities are planned, built, serviced and moved through. It formulates urban policy, co-finances the large city programmes that states and urban local bodies execute, and owns the central apparatus of public works and government estates. Its remit runs from water pipes and sewerage to affordable housing, from municipal solid waste to the metro corridors that reshape a city’s geography. Because Indian cities are governed by state governments and municipal bodies but funded and standard-set substantially from the Centre, this ministry is where national urban priorities are converted into money and design norms — its budget is dominated by mass-transit and housing.
Institutionally the ministry sits atop a cluster of powerful bodies: the Central Public Works Department, the Delhi Development Authority, the Land and Development Office, the Directorate of Estates, and the special-purpose vehicles and metro-rail companies that deliver its flagship missions. It runs AMRUT, the urban Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the urban Swachh Bharat Mission, the national Metro Rail Policy and, until its closure in March 2025, the Smart Cities Mission. It is the desk that decides which cities get metro sanction, how urban housing subsidies are structured, and what “smart” or “liveable” urban infrastructure the Union pays for.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
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Ministry of Works, Housing & Supply established
The Union government created a dedicated works-and-housing ministry, the institutional ancestor of today's urban-affairs ministry, then focused on central public works and government accommodation.
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Urban work split into two ministries
Urban functions were divided between a Ministry of Urban Development and a Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, separating infrastructure policy from slum and housing programmes.
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Street Vendors Act enacted, giving the urban desk a livelihoods statute
Parliament passed the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act — cleared by the Lok Sabha on 6 September 2013 and the Rajya Sabha on 19 February 2014 — requiring every local authority to constitute a Town Vending Committee, survey vendors, issue certificates of vending and frame a street vending plan every five years. It converted street vending from a policing matter into a planning obligation administered through the urban ministry.
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Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and urban PMAY launched
The government launched three flagship urban programmes on the same day: the Smart Cities Mission for 100 selected cities, AMRUT for basic urban infrastructure, and the urban Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for affordable housing.
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Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act enacted under the ministry
Act No. 16 of 2016 received assent on 25 March 2016 and was brought into force from 1 May 2016 vide notification S.O. 1544(E) (excepting ss. 3-19, 40, 59-70, 79 and 80), with India Code listing the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as the administering ministry. It established state Real Estate Regulatory Authorities and an appellate tribunal, and required 70% of buyer collections for a project to be held in a dedicated construction account.
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Two urban ministries merged into MoHUA; Metro Rail Policy issued
The Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation were merged to form the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the government issued a national Metro Rail Policy setting appraisal and financing norms for metro projects.
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Metro Rail Policy makes PPP mandatory and raises the appraisal bar to 14% EIRR
The Union Cabinet approved a new Metro Rail Policy that made private participation compulsory for any metro project seeking central assistance, shifted the sanction test from a 8% Financial Internal Rate of Return to a 14% Economic Internal Rate of Return, and mandated an Alternate Analysis against BRTS, light rail and regional rail before a metro can be chosen. It also required Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities, transit-oriented development and value-capture financing, and set three central-assistance routes: viability gap funding, a 10% lump-sum grant, or 50:50 equity.
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First Regional Rapid Transit System sanctioned, extending the remit beyond metro
The Delhi-Meerut corridor was sanctioned as India's first Regional Rapid Transit System, a new mass-transit class under the ministry distinct from conventional metro; 42 km opened in October 2023 with the remainder programmed for completion by June 2025.
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PM SVANidhi launched as a micro-credit line for street vendors
The ministry launched the Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi scheme on 1 June 2020 to give collateral-free working-capital loans to vendors whose businesses were hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, operationalising the identification machinery built under the 2014 Street Vendors Act.
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Model Tenancy Act approved for circulation to states
The Union Cabinet approved a Model Tenancy Act for states and union territories to adopt by fresh legislation or by amending existing rent laws, intended to formalise the rental housing market and unlock vacant housing stock. Because tenancy is a state subject, the Centre's instrument was a model law rather than a binding statute.
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Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 launched with a Rs 1.41 lakh crore outlay
The second phase of the urban sanitation mission was launched with an outlay of about Rs 1.41 lakh crore, targeting garbage-free cities, grey and black water management in all cities outside AMRUT, ODF+ status for all urban local bodies and remediation of legacy dumpsites. At launch the government stated all urban local bodies had been declared open-defecation free and 70% of solid waste was being scientifically processed.
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AMRUT 2.0 launched with a Rs 2.87 lakh crore outlay for universal water supply
AMRUT 2.0 was launched with an outlay of about Rs 2.87 lakh crore to deliver 100% water-supply coverage across roughly 4,700 urban local bodies via about 2.68 crore tap connections, and sewerage or septage coverage in 500 AMRUT cities via about 2.64 crore connections. It added a Pey Jal Survekshan ranking and a technology sub-mission, building on the 1.1 crore tap connections and 85 lakh sewer connections attributed to AMRUT 1.0.
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PM-eBus Sewa commits Rs 20,000 crore of central assistance for 10,000 electric buses
The ministry launched PM-eBus Sewa to augment urban bus operations with central assistance of Rs 20,000 crore for the deployment of 10,000 air-conditioned electric buses on a gross-cost-contract model, marking a shift of its transit money beyond rail into city bus fleets.
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PMAY-Urban 2.0 approved
The Union Cabinet approved a second phase of the urban housing scheme with a stated target of about one crore additional houses over five years, implemented through four verticals including beneficiary-led construction and an interest-subsidy scheme.
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DAY-NULM reports 1 crore women in self-help groups and 71.65 lakh vendors surveyed
As of 30 September 2024 the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission had mobilised over 1 crore urban poor women into more than 9.96 lakh self-help groups, created 39.39 lakh livelihoods, built 1,994 permanent shelters for 1.41 lakh urban homeless, and surveyed 71.65 lakh street vendors across 3,471 cities with 38.87 lakh certificates of vending issued, against Rs 5,733.10 crore of central assistance spent.
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Metro network reported at about 993 km with daily ridership past 1 crore
The ministry's year-end review recorded roughly 993 km of operational metro rail, up from about 248 km in May 2014, with a further 998 km under construction across 17 cities and average daily ridership crossing 1 crore against about 28 lakh in 2013-14. It also reported Smart Cities Mission work orders on 8,066 projects worth Rs 1,64,669 crore, of which 7,352 projects worth Rs 1,47,366 crore were complete as of 15 November 2024.
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Smart Cities Mission formally closed
After a decade and deadline extensions, the Smart Cities Mission was wound up; the ministry reported that more than 90% of its roughly 8,000 sanctioned projects were complete and that all 100 cities had operational Integrated Command and Control Centres.
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PM SVANidhi restructured and extended to 2030 with a Rs 7,332 crore outlay
The Union Cabinet approved restructuring the street-vendor credit scheme and extending its lending period to 31 March 2030 with a total outlay of Rs 7,332 crore, targeting 1.15 crore beneficiaries including 50 lakh new ones; first-tranche loans rose to Rs 15,000 and second-tranche to Rs 25,000, a UPI-linked RuPay credit card was added, and coverage was extended beyond statutory towns to census towns and peri-urban areas. Implementation was made a joint responsibility of the ministry and the Department of Financial Services. As of 30 July 2025 the scheme reported 96 lakh loans worth Rs 13,797 crore disbursed to over 68 lakh vendors.
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Delhi–Meerut Namo Bharat RRTS fully operational
The complete 82-km Delhi–Meerut corridor of India's first Regional Rapid Transit System, with a maximum operational speed of 160 km/h, was dedicated to the nation, extending the ministry's mass-transit remit beyond conventional metro.
Frequently asked
- What is Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs?
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the Government of India's apex authority for urban policy: town planning, urban housing, water supply and sanitation, urban transport and the finances of urban local bodies. It is the nodal ministry for India's flagship city programmes — the Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT, the urban Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and metro rail — and commands one of the Union Budget's larger capital lines, much of it for mass-transit and housing. Because most Indian urban infrastructure is co-financed and steered from this desk, it is a seat of power over how the country urbanises.
- When was Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs established?
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs was established 1952.
- What does Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs do?
- Its remit covers Urban development policy, town planning and urban land management, Urban housing, including the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), Urban water supply, sewerage and sanitation (AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Urban), Urban transport policy and metro rail (Metro Rail Policy, MRTS funding), The Smart Cities Mission and Integrated Command and Control Centres, Central public works, government estates and the National Capital's development.
- What is the latest on Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs?
- As of 2026-07-06: Delhi–Meerut Namo Bharat RRTS fully operational. The complete 82-km Delhi–Meerut corridor of India's first Regional Rapid Transit System, with a maximum operational speed of 160 km/h, was dedicated to the nation, extending the ministry's mass-transit remit beyond conventional metro.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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Canonical ministry site: divisions, schemes, tenders, vacancies, what's-new notices.
mohua.gov.in/
- Central Public Works Department (CPWD) department
MoHUA's attached office for central government construction and maintenance.
cpwd.gov.in/
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Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban guidelines, dashboards and progress data.
pmay-urban.gov.in/
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Bare Act with sections, rules, notifications; the main statute MoHUA administers.
www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2158
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PIB ministry release summarising the year's mission-wise progress and outlays.
www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2086464