Lanka promotes houses for needy

by Mohammed NAALIR

Sri Lanka is the pioneer which promoted the concept of housing for the people who live below the poverty line. Insufficient financial resources is the main constraint to the poor community to construct their own houses. The Government therefore gives them a helping hand in solving their problem. The National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) is the only Government Agency that launches housing projects in the country.

Since its inception the NHDA has constructed over a million houses spending around 12.53 billion rupees.

It focused its attention on the construction of individual houses, apartments and community buildings.The NHDA has been entrusted with the task of clearing slums and shanty areas and redeveloping them, encouraging housing development, developing land for housing and making sure of the availability of land for housing development.

The NHDA has a framework to be followed providing financial, material and technical assistance through loans and grants (depending on income level) to homeless families to build their own houses, providing land and infrastructure facilities to create new settlements at affordable cost, implementing capacity development programs for key players in the industry, directly engaging in the construction of houses in urban areas, implementing subsidised housing projects for deserving communities such as government servants, refurbishing or rebuilding old settlements directly or with the private sector participation, facilitating private sector involvement in new housing projects under the concept of development and providing lands, converting rented houses into self-owned ones and providing consultancy and other services to stakeholders in the housing sector.

Every year the NHDA launches mega housing projects throughout the country, sometimes with the participation of the private sector investors to ease the increasing housing problem.

The NHDA intends to assist 8,500 families to construct their houses this year and 6,000 families out of them will benefit under the 'Gama Neguma' rural development drive. The NHDA also plans to construct 2,000 housing units while upgrading 4,000 throughout the country at a cost of Rs. 575 million.

According to NHDA sources for the first time the 'Gama Neguma' program is to be implemented in the North and the East. Under the 'Jana Sevana' Housing Program of the 'Gama Neguma' rural development drive the NHDA constructed 5,900 housing units countrywide on a soft recovery loan basis at a cost of Rs. 370 million to address the housing problem of the middle income earners.

This year's housing program has been modified as follows: Special housing program for hill country, Jana Sevana (implemented under the Gama Neguma rural development drive), public servants' housing program and public-private sector joint housing program.Under the "Hill country rural housing development program", 300 new housing units will be constructed in selected rural areas in the hill country while upgrading 600 houses at a cost of Rs. 45 million. After the implementation of this program 1,000 families in the rural areas in the hill country will benefit.

Under the 'Jana Sevana' grant housing program 400 housing units will be constructed before the end of this year. A sum of Rs. 100,000 will be allocated to each beneficiary family as grant. The Sevana Fund will allocate Rs. 40 million for this program and Deserving families will be selected from the poorest of the poor to benefit from it.

The major part of the construction cost will be borne by the philanthropists of the relevant area. The donors for the program will be selected at the District Committee meeting of the NHDA chaired by the Government Agent (GA) of the relevant district.

Under the Jana Sevana grant housing program 300 housing units were constructed country-wide for the poorest of the poor. Meanwhile, the NHDA plans to implement a housing program for public servants with the assistance of the Chinese Government.

The Chinese Government has volunteered to provide Rs. 1,300 million credit facilities for this program.In addition to its ongoing programs, the NHDA plans to implement a housing program jointly with the private sector constructors. The financial input for the project will be provided by the private sector constructors. The NHDA will provide land and technical assistance and deploy its technical staff for the supervision of the project.On completion of the construction the houses will be handed over to the NHDA to be sold among the needed people at a fair price.