On Friday, the central government sanctioned over 2.5 lakh more affordable houses in 10 states under its flagship housing scheme - the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Urban (PMAY).

In a tweet, Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said in the houses were approved on Friday at a meeting of the central sanctioning and monitoring committee (CSMC), chaired by him.

"The flagship urban missions, particularly PM Awas Yojana-Urban, are #TransformingUrbanLandscape at an unprecedented pace. In the CSMC Meeting held today we sanctioned over 2.5 lakh more houses in 10 States," Mishra's tweet said.

According to him, the total number of houses being funded under the PMAY (Urban) is close to 84 lakh across the country so far, with Uttar Pradesh being the biggest beneficiary state in the country at 13 lakh houses, followed by Andhra Pradesh at over 12 lakh houses.

Earlier this week, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that the target of constructing one crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) can be achieved by 2020-end, two years before the deadline.

The PMAY (U) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015, as a part of the ruling government's 'housing for all by 2022' agenda.