The Indian government built 10,000 houses this year for internally displaced people in Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces and 33,000 more will be constructed in the next two years.
The housing project funded by New Delhi made significant progress during 2013, the Indian High Commission here said on Tuesday.
“The second phase of the Indian Housing Project, involving the construction of 43,000 housing units for IDPs in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which is being implemented in consultation with... the Government of Sri Lanka, has made significant progress by attaining the target of completing 10,000 new houses during 2013,” a statement said.
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It said 16,000 more houses are expected to be completed during 2014, and the remaining 17,000 houses will be built in 2015.
In the east, the housing project was launched in May and 66 houses have been completed so far while 400 more are nearing completion.
The construction of 43,000 houses for resettling and rehabilitating people displaced during the ethnic war in Sri Lanka is part of India’s overall commitment to build 50,000 houses, which was announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June 2010.
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The third phase of the housing project, involving the construction of 4,000 houses for Indian-origin estate workers of Central and Uva Provinces, will be taken up by April 2014.
The fourth phase will be launched in the northern and eastern provinces for the most vulnerable conflict displaced people next year.
The project is being implemented with full grant assistance from India, with the total outlay of Rs 1,372 crore making it one of the largest grant assistance projects undertaken by the government in any country, the High Commission said.