Indian-funded Mahatma Gandhi Model Village opens in Ampara

Friday, 31 October 2025 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha and Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe jointly inaugurated and handed over Mahatma Gandhi Model Village in Ampara to the 24 beneficiary families on 29 October.

Deputy Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply T.B. Sarath, Deputy Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment Wasantha Piyathissa, and Member of Parliament Priyantha Wijerathna also participated in the ceremony.

The event was also attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Water Supply of Sri Lanka, Chairman and senior officials from National Housing Development Authority, officials from Eastern Provincial Council and Ampara District Administration.

The Model Village Housing Project is being implemented in all 25 districts of the island jointly with the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Water Supply of Sri Lanka with grant support from the Government of India. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka was signed for the project in October 2017. The project encompasses housing facilities for 600 low-income families of Sri Lanka, with a model village each consisting of 24 houses per district for families selected by the District Housing Committees.

Model villages under the project have earlier been inaugurated and handed over in 16 districts: Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Kandy, Gampaha, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Matale, Puttalam, Colombo, Trincomalee, Monaragala, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Ratnapura. The project progress is nearly 98% and the remaining model villages too are expected to be inaugurated and handed over to the beneficiaries soon.