India today said its plans to build over 40,000 homes in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged northern and eastern areas has shown good progress since its launch in October last year.
The Indian Housing Project is a housing reconstruction project funded by the Government of India and implemented through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sri Lankan government.
The Steering Committee for the Indian Housing Project has placed on record its appreciation for the progress made in terms of selection of beneficiaries and release of funds during Year-I of Phase 2 of the Housing Project, a release by the Indian High Commission said.
As on 31 March 2013, a sum of Sri Lanka rupees 2.28 billion has been disbursed as instalment payments.
This includes first instalment payments transferred to 11,379 beneficiaries, second instalment payments to 3,448 beneficiaries, third instalment to 741 beneficiaries and fourth instalment to 18 beneficiaries.
The eastern province phase of the project will begin next month and priority would be given to highly-affected areas after an assessment to indicate the number of resettled families, the High Commission said.
UN-Habitat is one of the four implementing agencies. The 36-month project is scheduled to be implemented from mid 2012 until mid 2015.
The specific action of this project will lead to direct housing provision through the reconstruction and repair of 43,000 houses.
