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The internally displaced persons (IDPs) in north Sri Lanka will soon be partners in building their own homes. The Tamils will build a majority of the 49,000 houses over the next few years. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Sri Lankan counterpart, G.L. Peiris, on Tuesday signed documents to this effect.
The Memorandum of Understanding specifies the modalities for the next phase of the housing project being implemented with India's assistance of about $260 million.
Of the 49,000 houses, a total of 38,000 houses would be reconstructed, 5,000 repaired under the owner-driven model for IDPs, and 6,000 would be constructed by agencies for vulnerable sections of IDPs who can't build their own houses.
A pilot project for the construction of the first 1,000 houses is already in an advanced stage of completion. Mr. Krishna will hand over to the beneficiaries some of these houses on Wednesday. He had laid the foundation for the housing project in November 2010.
India also extended a line of credit of $382.37 million for restoring Northern Railway services. The credit will be used for laying of tracks on the Pallai-Kankasanthurai line, setting up of signalling and telecommunications systems for the Northern Railway and other projects as may be mutually agreed upon by the governments of India and Sri Lanka.
T.C.A. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director, EXIM Bank of India, and P.B. Jayasundera, Secretary, Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance and Planning, signed the MoU. They also signed an MoU on a Buyer's Credit Agreement of $ 60.69 million for financing Greater Dambulla Water Supply Project for supply, erection, commissioning of water treatment plant and distribution across the Dambulla region.
India will also be extending its expertise in agriculture to Sri Lanka. An MoU on cooperation in the field of agriculture was signed by Ashok K. Kantha, High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, and W. Sakalasooriya, Secretary, Sri Lankan Ministry of Agriculture. Under the MoU, both sides will promote development of cooperation in the fields of agricultural science and technology, agricultural production and agro-processing through joint activities, programmes, exchange of scientific materials, information and personnel. The cooperation will be effected through biennial work plans and joint activities.
TRAI help
To strengthen competency in the field of telecommunication regulation in Sri Lanka, an MoU was signed between the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL).
The MoU provides for establishing a mechanism of technical and institutional cooperation in telecommunications, to develop telecommunications in both the countries, particularly in the areas of technological developments; universal access to telecommunication services; oversight of service provision; convergence; next generation networks; new technologies; spectrum issues; green telecom; number portability; economic regulation; and ICTs for development. The MoU was signed by J.S. Sarma, TRAI Chairman and Anusha Palpita TRCSL Director-General. |
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