Housing development in estate sector held up due to shortage of funding

BY Rathindra Kuruwita

Three thousand five hundred and seventy six (3,576) houses under a project to build 14,000 housing units in the plantation community on a full grant basis by 31 December 2020 have been completed, but 2,877 of them could not be handed over to the beneficiaries because there are no funds to supply electricity and water, the Annual Performance Report of the State Ministry of Estate Housing and Community Infrastructure for the year 2020 says.

“The construction of 3576 houses was completed by 31.12.2020 and out of them 699 have already been handed over to the beneficiaries. Out of these houses, 2877 are to be provided with electricity and water,” the report says.

The report has revealed that another 424 houses are in various stages of construction, and they are scheduled to be completed before September 30, 2021.

The houses could not be provided with electricity or water in 2020 because the Treasury had not allocated funds for the project. Therefore, approval has been received to extend the project period up to September 2021 and to allocate Rs. 522 million for the provision of infrastructure facilities, the Ministry says.

Work on another 10,000 houses is to commence this year at an estimated cost of Rs. 11 billion out of which the Indian government is to grant Rs. 9.5 billion. These will be built for the plantation community in Badulla, Hatton, Nuwara- Eliya, Kandy, Kegalle, Ratnapura and Galle.

The Ministry says there are three types of houses in the estates now: Single barrack Line Houses, Double barrack Line Houses and Temporary Houses.

“A Single Barrack Line House is a 264 square feet house with a front veranda and a single room. A double line room has an area of around 145 – 175 square feet each. Temporary houses have been built adjacent to the existing line rooms since the existing line rooms are not sufficient with the gradual increase in the number of families in the plantation sector. These houses have the least facilities,” the report says.

Given that such housing is degrading for inhabitants, there was a proposal to build 550-square-foot single houses with adjoining toilets, on a seven-perch blocks of land with title deeds and infrastructure such as safe drinking water, electricity, and access roads.

“For the year 2020, it was decided complete 1,710 housing units. The Ministry was able to complete the construction of 700 houses by 31 December 2020 by continuing the housing programme in collaboration with the Plantation Human Development Trust. Rs. 768.95 million was spent on infrastructure for new houses during the year. This also includes Rs. 88 million spent on the provision of essential infrastructure. However, the allocations received were not sufficient to build the remaining 1010 houses.”

The Ministry says there are 1,544 Child Development Centres under the Estate Management to provide day care facilities for children between the ages of two and five. Out of them 550 or 38% of the centres have low level facilities.