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More help from Austria
By N.Dilshath Banu
Austrian Vice Chancellor Hubert Gorbach will arrive on Tuesday to discuss issues related to tsunami reconstruction and other devlopment work. Mr. Gorbach will meet Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, Finance minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Transport minister Felix Perera and officials of TAFREN.

Presently the Austrian government and several Austrian NGO's are involved in tsunami rehabilitation work. The Austrian government has pledged upto 50 million euros, especially for rebuilding houses.

"We don't just build houses, but villages. Building houses alone won't help the community. We hope to develop other related areas that affect the community as a whole," Bittner Buddenbrock, the Austrian Embassy Counsellor in Colombo told a news conference.

Austrian aid workers have already completed 200 houses which have been handed over to the people in the South. Outlining other development work Mr. Buddenbrock said the Austrian government had gifted 21 buses to the Ministry of Transport and six trucks to the Railways Department. Austria is also involved in a three year project to build bridges in different parts of the country.

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