On 29th July 2026, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka H.E. Santosh Jha and Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe jointly inaugurated two model villages, ‘Nanda Gama’ in Kegalle and ‘Jana Aruna Gama’ in Kalutara. Hon. Minister of Environment Dr. Dammika Patabendiand Hon. Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa joined the inaugurations in Kegalle and Kalutara respectively.

During the ceremony, the housing units were handed over to the 48 beneficiary families in the two villages. The event was attended by District Parliamentarians; senior officials from Ministry of Housing, Construction and Water Supply; Chairman and senior officials from National Housing Development Authority and officials from the two District Administrations.

The Model Village Housing Project is being implemented in all 25 districts of Sri Lanka with grant support from Government of India. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed for the project in October 2017 between the Governments of India and Sri Lanka.

The project encompasses housing facilities for 600 low-income families of Sri Lanka, with each model village consisting of 24 housing units for families selected by the District Housing Committees.

Model villages under the project have earlier been inaugurated and handed over in 18 districts of Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Kandy, Gampaha, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Matale, Puttalam, Colombo, Trincomalee, Monaragala, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Ratnapura, Ampara and Kurunagala. The project progress is nearly 98.5% complete and the remaining fivemodel villages are expected to be inaugurated and handed over to the beneficiaries soon.