Sri Lanka and India today signed four MoUs towards constructing 2, 400 houses for homeless and low income families across the island under four housing programmes at a total cost of Rs. 1.2 billion. High Commissioner of India Gopal Baglay and Secretary, State Ministry of Rural Housing and Construction & Building Materials Industries Promotion of Sri Lanka Keerthi Ranjith Abesiriwardhana signed the four MoUs in the presence of State Minister Indika Anuruddha. The High Commission said these MoUs would pave the way for releasing installment for the houses as advance payment enabling quicker implementation of the projects. Accordingly, 2, 400 houses for homeless, low income families across the island are being constructed under the four housing programmes at a total cost of SLR 1.2 billion. This includes 600 houses under the Model Village Housing Project evenly spread across the 25 Districts of Sri Lanka, 1, 200 houses being built under two Gram Shakti Housing Projects in the Southern Province and an additional 600 houses being built in the Northern Province under the Gram Shakti Housing Project. Meanwhile, 96 houses have already been completed under the four programmes. All these projects are being executed through National Housing Development Authority, of Sri Lanka. The four housing schemes are in addition to Government of India’s flagship Indian Housing Programme under which close to 50,000 houses have already been constructed. Construction of another 10,000 houses is also being undertaken in plantation areas of Sri Lanka. India’s overall commitment of development assistance in Sri Lanka stands at a total of around US$ 3.5 billion. Out of this, close to US$ 560 million are being offered as grants.