In Sri Lanka, Tamils of Indian origin will get their first allotment of houses under Indian housing project in a function to be held on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the beneficiaries through a video message while Sri Lankan Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be the chief guest on the occasion.
Indian Tamils, mostly employed in tea and rubber plantations in Sri Lanka, lack proper housing and Indian government is funding construction of 14 thousand houses for them through grant assistance project.
Government of India, as part of its development assistance to Sri Lanka, has already built 46 thousand houses in war affected north and east provinces while another four thousand houses were earmarked for plantation workers in central and Uva province.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had announced construction of another ten thousand houses during his second visit to Sri Lanka last year.
The funding is being done through an innovative community- driven approach and grant assistance of 9,50,000 Sri Lankan rupees is being disbursed per beneficiary in installments.
India has committed development assistance of around 3 billion dollars to Sri Lanka out of which around 550 million dollars is pure grant.
The developmental assistance projects are entirely based on the priorities set by the Government and the people of Sri Lanka.
They have been widely appreciated for the value they generate per unit of assistance provided, their transparent approach and timely implementation through recourse to local materials and manpower, in a manner that supports local economy.
The assistance focuses specially on capacity-building, human resources development, uplifting of weaker sections as well as infrastructure development.
