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| Sunday, 9 January 2005 |
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Business |  |
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Low-cost houses for affected areas 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 interested parties to construct low- cost houses in tsunami devastated areas out of demolished materials that are however still usable. It is estimated that more than 75,000 houses have been damaged in the disaster, NERD- Head of the Civil Engineering Department, Ariyaratne Silva said. He said that NERD is now in the process of developing low- cost housing construction methods with materials that are salvaged from demolished houses in devastated areas. He said that a lot of demolished materials are now available in those areas which could be used for these construction activities. He also said that several inquiries have been received from various donor organisations especially in the North and East, to build low -cost houses in devastated areas. According to Silva a 400 -square- foot house could cost around Rs 170,000 to 200,000 to build with such raw materials. Most of the philanthrophists and donor companies are interested in allocating that money for each house. NERD has also developed other low- cost housing methods. The most popular is the slip method developed specially for the areas where there is a dearth of sand. Under this method soil blocks and cement are used for construction. He said that these houses could be constructed based on the raw materials availability in the area. The Centre for Housing, Planning and Building (CHPB) has also developed a low- cost housing concept for the country which could be used when building houses in the tsunami affected areas, its Deputy Director Lionel Hewawasam said. He said that they have used low- cost technologies developed by various organisations, into one unit. According to Hewawasam, a 586 square foot house could be constructed at a cost of Rs 150,000. |
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