Fifty estate families get new homes
The Planters Association of Ceylon, the representative body of the
country’s 23 Regional Plantation Companies (RPC), said 50 plantation
families in the Kegalle District got new homes recently. This is part of
an ongoing plantation sector welfare programme conducted in RPC estates
to provide modern housing for plantation communities. Plantation
companies facilitate the process by allocating land to build new houses
for plantation families.
The 50 houses are located in the Kiriporuwa Estate (20 houses) and
the Panawatta Estate (30 houses), both belonging to the Regional
Plantation Company, Kelani Valley Plantations.
“We provided seven perches of land per housing unit and facilitated
the building process. The houses were funded by the Ministry of
Livestock and Rural Community Development, in the form of a grant and a
concessionary loan. A loan of Rs 200,000 was given by the ministry, at a
very low 7.5% interest, to each family,” said Buddhi Gunasekara, the
Group Manager of the Panawatta Group, Kelani Valley Plantations.
The new 540 sq ft houses that are built according to ministry
specifications, are expected to improve living standards of the
recipient families.
“Previously these families were living in line rooms and the entire
family had only one bedroom. But these new houses have two bedrooms, a
toilet and a separate kitchen and living area. The house owners can also
expand their houses, within the seven perches, if they want to,” said
Gunasekara.
The plantation company says it has been supporting housing
development for estate families since 1992 and will continue to do so.
Funds donated for housing construction are channelled through Estate
Worker’s Housing Cooperative Societies. The current 50 houses that cost
Rs 22 million, were constructed under the New Life housing program,
implemented through the Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT).
The PHDT says under this programme, 772 houses will be built for
estate populations living in RPC estates all over the country. From 1993
to 2010 nearly 25,000 new houses have been constructed on RPC estates,
said the PHDT. |
