Indian Housing Project to resume

The Indian Housing Project (IHP) will resume after being temporarily shelved because of the nation's economic problems. According to Jeevan Thondaman, Secretary General of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress and Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development, the Government of India has taken action to offer more funding for this purpose.

In the beginning, the housing project in the upcountry that the Indian government contributed money to, cost 9 lakh 50 thousand rupees per house. However, it is now thought that about 28 lakh rupees are needed to build a house due to factors like inflation. In this scenario, an agreement was reached yesterday (13) to build the remaining homes at the revised assessment price in order to finish the 4,000 housing project, the Minister's Media Unit said in a press release.

The ceremony was organized at Indian House under the direction of Gopal Baglay, the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.

After the occasion, Minister Jeevan Thondaman addressed the media and remarked,

When I became the Minister of State in 2020, India's 4,000 housing project was already in operation. The beneficiaries received the completed 699 homes. Almost 2,000 homes lack essential amenities like power and running water. I took action to complete them and deliver them to the recipients.

The Covid-19 and subsequent economic crises briefly put a stop to the Indian housing initiative. Cement costs climbed during this time by up to three thousand rupees. While 9 lakh 50 thousand rupees per property were allotted, it is currently anticipated that 28 lakh rupees are needed.

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission stated that High Commissioner Baglay and Minister Thondaman exchanged diplomatic notes, paving way for a three-fold increase in unit cost of a house under Phase-3 of the IHP. 

 This step would now enable expeditious completion of Phase-3 of IHP, under which 4000 houses are being constructed through grant assistance by Government of India (GOI) in plantation areas of Sri Lanka, spread across 7 Districts in Central, Uva and Southern Provinces. Close to 46,000 houses were built in different parts of Sri Lanka under the first two phases of IHP. Next phase for the construction of 10,000 houses in plantation areas, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shall commence soon, the High Commission noted. 

"Exchange of diplomatic notes takes place at an important juncture, when the Indian-Origin Tamil (IOT) community who are concentrated in the plantation areas marks 200 years of their arrival to Sri Lanka. This also coincides with 100 years of establishment of Assistant High Commission of India in Kandy, which has been instrumental in implementing several people-centric grant schemes by GOI for the IOT community cutting across areas such as education, health, vocational training, livelihood development and several others, in addition to housing," the High Commission further said. 

The statement added that these milestones shall be commemorated by the Governments of India and Sri Lanka through several joint initiatives along with the establishment of 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two neighbours.