The next phase of the Indian Housing Project , which includes repair and reconstruction of 49,000 houses for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka was approved by the Indian Cabinet on Thursday.
A press statement from the Indian High Commission today stated that the Project will be under full grant assistance of the Government of India and the total cost of the project would be approximately 260 million USD. The Project will primarily be implemented under the owner-driven model wherein the beneficiaries will undertake the reconstruction of their houses with necessary technical assistance and support provided to them. Although bulk of the housing units will be implemented under this model, houses for people from vulnerable sections, who are unable to build their own houses, like households headed by single women, disabled, elderly people etc., will be built by construction agencies.
The selection of beneficiaries for the Project will be done through a transparent, norm-based process and based on clearly defined and objective criteria. The construction of 49,000 houses for resettlement and rehabilitation of IDPs in Sri Lanka is part of the overall commitment to build 50,000 houses announced by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during the State visit of the President of Sri Lanka to India Mahinda Rajapaksa in June 2010. This commitment also formed a part of the Joint Declaration issued in New Delhi on June 9, 2010.
The three components of the Project would include , reconstruction of 38,000 houses under the owner-driven model for IDPs, repairs of 5,000 houses under the owner-driven model for IDPs and construction of 6,000 houses by agencies for vulnerable sections of IDPs in the Northern and Eastern provinces and for Indian Origin Tamils (IOTs) in the Central and Uva Provinces. A pilot project for the construction of 1,000 houses in the five districts of war ravaged Northern Province was launched with the signing of the agreement in this regard during the visit of Minister of External Affairs Hon’ble S.M. Krishna to Sri Lanka in November 2010. The project is presently underway and handing over of houses to beneficiaries will commence soon. The pilot project has an outlay of approx. 10.1 million USD under grant assistance from the Government of India.
