Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-08-07

Expediting the completion of the partial houses under the 'Virusumithuru' Housing Project

- The approval of the Cabinet has been granted previously to implement the 'Virusumithuru' Housing Project to construct 1,950 complete houses and 1,700 partial houses within the period from 2017 to 2020 to address the housing needs of the immediate family members of the war heroes who laid their lives and disabled in combat. At this instance, the labour cost for the construction of a complete house was assessed at Rs.4 million and a partial house at Rs.2 million and it was decided for the three Army Forces, the Police and the Civil Security Department to provide the labour contribution so needed. Although, the labour contribution of the security forces could be obtained for the construction of complete houses, it has been difficult to get such contribution for the construction of partial houses as anticipated. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Sajith Premadasa, the Minister of Housing and Construction, to provide Government financial contribution to the beneficiaries instead of the labour contribution of the security forces to expedite the completion of partial houses under this programme and to set apart the provision necessary to complete 1,649 of such houses, was approved by the Cabinet.