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| Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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Over 90,000 low-cost houses in N and E by Hiran H.Senewiratne The country's premier Research and Development (R&D) agency,the National Engineering Research and Development Centre of Sri Lanka (NERD) will assist the government in the construction of more than 90,000 low cost houses in the North and East. Under a World Bank funding for the- North East housing reconstruction program, which amounts to US$ 100 million, NERD Chairman Jayantha Ranatunga said . He said that NERD has trained more than 400 persons on low- cost housing construction methods at the request of the World Bank officials, covering eight districts . NERD has developed a low- cost housing method namely, the slip method specially for the areas where there is a dearth of sand and other raw materials and that would be the solution to the country's sand crisis, Ranatunga added. The target is to construct 450,000 low cost houses in those areas within the next couple of years. Under this program each family will get a loan of Rs 150,000 to construct a house.A large number of houses were destroyed during the two decades of war in the North and East. Ranatunga said that NERD will construct five sample houses in each district and the people in those areas will be educated in the method of building such houses within that amount . He said that during the past few months NERD has trained many people who are in the construction field including masons and builders and has been giving them licences for them to construct low- cost houses. NERD Head/Dept of Techno Marketing Kumar Perera said that the slip form method can be popularised throughout the country, which would be the solution to the sand crisis.Perera said that this is mainly a sand conservation method. Acting Head of the Department of Civil Engineering Ariyaratne Silva said that more than 1000 self-employments seekers will be generated per district once the construction work starts. He said that these sample houses will be constructed based on the raw material availability in the area. In the meantime,the Head of the North and East housing reconstruction program Harim Peiris said that at present they are in the process of constructing 1000 houses in those areas as a pilot project, which will be completed before the end of this year.He said that a basic house would consist of two rooms and a living area. Another loan will be granted to construct the kitchen and toilet. |
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