Sri Lanka will sign an agreement with the government of India to construct 10,000 houses for the plantation community in the central hills under the Indian Government Grant assistance.

The Government of India has already granted funding to construct 4,000 houses for the estate community living in the Nuwara Eliya and Badulla Districts, and 1,136 houses are already near completion. The construction of another 2,836 houses was started in January 2018.

During his visit to Sri Lanka in May 2017, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to fund construction of 10,000 housing units for the plantation community.

Identifying suitable land plots to construct the remaining houses will begin this month and priority will be given to the families affected by the landslides.

The value of a house to be built under the project will be around Rs. 1 million.

Accordingly, he cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday has approved a proposal put forward by the Minister of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure & Community Development Palani Digambaram to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian government to implement the project to construct 10,000 houses, at a cost of Rs. 1 million each, for the plantation community