Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Saturday, 2 January 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Indian Housing Project, under which 46,000 houses are to be constructed or repaired in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and 4,000 houses constructed in the Central and Uva Provinces, is nearing completion in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
As of 31 December 2015, a total of 43,800 houses have been completed. During 2015, 13,827 new houses were constructed in the Northern Province, and 2,051 in the Eastern Province. In addition, 502 damaged houses were repaired in the Northern Province. Only 2,200 houses remain to be constructed or repaired in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which is expected to be completed during the next few months.
In June 2010, the Government of India announced that it would construct 50,000 houses in Sri Lanka as part of post-conflict rehabilitation efforts. The Project is being implemented as full grant assistance amounting to USD 270 million (approximately SLR 30 billion) from the Government of India, making it one of the largest grant assistance projects ever undertaken by India overseas.
Under the pilot phase of the Project, which was completed in July 2012, the Government of India entrusted an agency to construct 1,000 houses in the Northern Province. An innovative owner-driven model is being pursued to implement the second phase to construct 45,000 houses in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, wherein the Government of India arranges technical support and financial assistance for the owner-beneficiaries to undertake the construction / repair of their houses themselves. Financial assistance of SLR 550,000 per beneficiary (SLR 250,000 in case of repair cases) is released in stages, and transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by the High Commission of India. The project is being implemented in close consultation with the Government of Sri Lanka and other stakeholders, and the highest standards of objectivity and transparency are being followed, both for beneficiary selection and payment mechanism.
The third phase, to construct 4,000 houses in the Central and Uva Provinces through an innovative community-driven approach, will be launched very shortly.
