New Delhi, Mar 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday distributed loans to one lakh street vendors (SVs) including 5,000 from Delhi under the SVANidhi scheme.

During the event at JLN Stadium here, he handed over PM SVANidhi loan cheques to five beneficiaries.

Addressing the beneficiaries, Modi said till date 62 lakh of them have received assistance worth Rs 11,000 crores.

He expressed delight that more than half of the beneficiaries are women. Recalling the launch of PM SVANidhi Yojna during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister threw light on a recent study which stated that the income of street vendors has grown manifold.

“Today, around 1 lakh beneficiaries across the country have received the direct transfer of money in their bank accounts under the PM SVANidhi Yojana” PM Modi further added.

The Prime Minister said out of 4 crore pucca houses, 1 crore have been allotted to the urban poor.

Referring to the massive drive to provide pucca houses in place of jhuggis, the Prime Minister said 3000 dwellings have already been completed in Delhi and 3500 more are about to be completed.

The Central government is working day and night to make the lives of the poor and the middle class easier in Delhi, he said.

During the event, the Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone for two additional corridors of Delhi Metro’s Phase 4.

The two additional corridors of Delhi Metro are Lajpat Nagar–Saket-G Block and Inderlok – Indraprastha.

On Wednesday, the Union cabinet approved two new corridors of Delhi Metro Phase-IV — one from Inderlok to Indraprastha and the other from Lajpat Nagar to Saket G-Block — at Rs 8,399 crore, of which, Rs 4,309 crore will be in the form of a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

UNI