Sri Lanka and India sign four MoUs on Grama Shakti and Model Village Housing Projects

Indian High Commissioner, Gopal Baglay and Secretary, State Ministry of Rural Housing and Construction & Building Materials Industries Promotion, Keerthi Ranjith Abesiriwardhana signed four MoUs towards streamlining the implementation mechanisms of ongoing Model Village and three Grama Shakti Housing Projects on Friday.

State Minister Indika Anuruddha was also present.

The MoUs would pave the way for releasing instalments for the houses as advance payment enabling quicker implementation of the projects.

A total 2,400 houses for homeless, low income families across the country are being constructed under the four housing programs at a cost of SLR 1.2 billion. 600 houses under the Model Village Housing Project are evenly spread across the 25 Districts. 1,200 houses are being built under two Grama Shakti Housing Projects in the Southern Province and an additional 600 houses are being built in the Northern Province under the Grama Shakti Housing Project.  96 houses have already been completed under the four programs.

All these projects are being executed through National Housing Development Authority of Sri Lanka.

The four housing schemes are in addition to Government of India’s flagship Indian Housing Program under which close to 50,000 houses have already been constructed. The onstruction of another 10,000 houses is also being undertaken in plantation areas.

 Housing projects across the island are aligned with people-oriented, community-driven developmental assistance programmes by Government of India in Sri Lanka.  India’s overall commitment of development assistance in the island nation stands at a total of around US$ 3.5 billion. Out of this, close to US$ 560 million are being offered as grants.  India’s development assistance projects in Sri Lanka are spread across diverse sectors viz. Education, Research & Training; Health & Medical Care; Industrial Development; Livelihood & Shelter; Transport; Vocational Training and Art, Sports & Culture. (Indian HC news release)