Uthuru Vasanthaya Housing Projects report out soon

Walter Liyanarachchi

The Housing and Common Amenities Ministry is in the process of drafting a report titled “Uthuru Vasanthaya Housing Projects” which will be presented to President Mahinda Rajapaksa during the course of the week.

It is expected that at least 200,000 partly or completely damaged houses in the North have to be renovated, repaired or rebuilt, a Housing Authority official said.

The main problems are the existing landmines, identifying ownership of the lands and the extent of the lands. This has become a difficult task since ignoring such problems would create chaos in the future. With all the constraints we have to expedite implementing the projects, he said.

“The building of houses will be executed in three ways.

The claimant can rebuild, repair or renovate the house by himself or hand it over to a contractor which is more expensive.

The third system is that the Government can allocate a land in which a prospective investor can construct the house.

Such houses especially are meant for the diaspora willing to come back to Sri Lanka paying heed to the President’s call” he said. “The lack of technical officers and engineers to meet the huge task ahead is also another problem we face.

However, when the work commences we hope to transfer excess officers who can converse in Tamil from the East sites to the North” the official said.