Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday directed officials to prepare an action plan for constructing houses and hand them over to beneficiaries after distributing pattas for the eligible poor in the Amaravati capital region.

Reviewing the government housing programme, the Chief Minister instructed officials to give special attention on expediting construction for the poor to get their houses at the earliest. "The sooner the houses are constructed and handed over to the poor, the better it would be for their lives," Reddy said in a a release by the state government.

Meanwhile, officials informed the Chief Minister that 5,024 Andhra Pradesh Township And Infrastructure Development Corporation (APTIDCO) houses are ready to be handed over while levelling works of land at R-5 zone, a designated place for eligible poor people in the capital area, have been completed and house pattas are ready to be distributed.

According to officials, 3.7 lakh houses were completed thus far under housing for poor as part of the 'Navaratnalu' scheme of nine different welfare programmes while the state has spent Rs 1,085 crore on housing in the past 45 days.

Further, they noted that construction of five lakh houses would be completed in the next 45 days while 8.6 lakh of them are under various stages of development. Moreover, efforts have been intensified to enable women beneficiaries to avail loans, even as more than 11 lakh women were granted bank loans up to Rs 35,000 each while the loan amount sanctioned under the 'Pavala Vaddi' MSME scheme has risen up to Rs 3,887 crore.