In a special event held today (03), the Gandhi Nagar - Model Village built with Indian assistance under the Model Villages Program of the Ministry of Housing and Construction & Cultural Affairs in Batticaloa District was inaugurated and the completed houses are handed over to the beneficiaries.

The village is the second of the 100 model villages being built with Indian Assistance and is named after Mahatma Gandhi, the highly respected world statesman and father of the nation in his 150th birth anniversary.

High Commissioner of India Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Minister of Housing and Construction & Cultural Affairs Sajith Premadasa jointly inaugurated the village and handed over the houses.

Ameer Ali, State Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Economic Affairs, Seyed Ali Zahir Moulana, Member of Parliament, leaders from the Eastern Province, senior Government officials and a large number of people from the region attended the ceremony.     

Government of India has partnered with the Ministry of Housing and Construction & Cultural Affairs to build 100 model villages consisting of a total of 2400 houses all across Sri Lanka under Indian grant assistance of 1200 million SLR. These 2400 houses are in addition to the 60,000 houses built under the Indian Housing Project meant for war-affected people in the North and East and the estate workers in the plantation areas.

India has undertaken more than 70 people-oriented development projects in various fields including health, education, housing, skill development, infrastructure, vocational training among others, all across the country. About, 20 such projects are currently under progress including three projects in the Eastern Province viz. construction of surgical unit in Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, Construction of Auditorium in Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies and a sanitation project in Batticaloa. The overall development portfolio of Government of India in Sri Lanka is close to US$ 3 billion out of which US$ 560 million are in grants.