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| Sunday, 2 January 2005 |
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Government plans massive reconstruction by Jayantha Sri Nissanka The Government has launched a massive reconstruction drive to rebuild the Tsunami devastated areas with international support. Twenty countries have pledged their support to rebuild the nation, Government sources said. President Chandrika Bandaranike Kumaratunga has pledged to rebuild the affected areas and resettle the victims in newly built houses within six months. According to her the entire exercise would cost the Government over Rs. 100 billion. Already the infrastructure developers such as Sri Lanka Telecom, Road Development Authority, Sri Lanka Railways, Ceylon Electricity Board, Urban Development Authority, National Water supply and Drainage Board, etc have restored their services to normalcy in certain parts in the affected districts and their officers are now working round the clock to bring normalcy in other areas too. The RDA has launched a special operation to rebuild the damaged bridges in Akurala,Seenigama and other areas in order to ensure free flow of vehicles on Galle road.These institutions have lost billions worth of assets due to the Tsunami. According to rough estimates the Sri Lankan Railway's loss is around Rs. 7 billion and the fisheries industry loss is nearly Rs.30 billion. The Urban Development Authority officers were engaged in drawing Master Plans with the objective of introducing `planned cities' in Hambantota, Matara and Galle hereafter. Reconstruction efforts have begun in the devastated areas mobilising the resources of all Government institutions. The Word Bank has initially granted Rs. 10 billion (US$ 100 million) as emergency credit to meet immediate relief needs. It has pledged the Government with more financial assistance to overcome the damage caused by from the deadly Tsunami waves. The Asian Development Bank has granted US$ 325 million for the affected countries. They plan to release another US$ 150 million. However, Sri Lanka,Indonesia and the Maldives have received US$ 175 million already. Other international organisations have also come up with their assistance packages to help Sri Lanka. The UNDP, WFP, UNHCR, UNFPA and OCHA have already given Rs. 35 million (US $3.5 million) initial assistance. The United Nations Development Program has assigned two disaster management specialists to the Centre for National Operations (CNO) along with a liaison officer to work with the Government and international efforts. |
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