Batticaloa , August 3 (newsin.asia): The Gandhi Nagar Model Village in Batticaloa district which was built under the Model Villages Program of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Housing and Construction & Cultural Affairs with an Indian grant was inaugurated here on Saturday.
The completed houses were jointly handed over to the beneficiaries by the High Commissioner of India Taranjit Singh Sandhu and the Lankan Minister of Housing and Construction & Cultural Affairs Sajith Premadasa.
The Gandhi Nagar Model Village is the second of the 100 model villages being built with Indian assistance and is named after Mahatma Gandhi, the highly respected world statesman and father of the Indian nation to mark his 150th birth anniversary.
Ameer Ali, State Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Economic Affairs, Seyed Ali Zahir Moulana, Member of Parliament from Batticaloa, leaders from the Eastern Province, senior Government officials and a large number of people from the region attended the ceremony.
The Government of India has partnered with the Lankan Ministry of Housing and Construction & Cultural Affairs to build 100 model villages consisting of a total of 2400 houses all across Sri Lanka under an Indian grant assistance of SLR 1200 million (US$ 6.7 million). The 2400 houses are in addition to the 60,000 houses built under the Indian Housing Project meant for the war-affected people in the North and East and the estate workers in the plantation areas.
India has undertaken more than 70 people-oriented development projects in various fields including health, education, housing, skill development, infrastructure, vocational training among others, all across the country.
About, 20 such projects are currently in progress including three projects in the Eastern Province viz. construction of a surgical unit at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, Construction of an auditorium in Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies and a sanitation project in Batticaloa.
The overall development portfolio of the Government of India in Sri Lanka is close to US$ 3 billion out of which US$ 560 million are in grants.
(The featured image at the top shows Lankan Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa and Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu jointly inaugurating Gandhi Nagar Model Village in Batticaloa)
