India infuses additional funds into ongoing grant projects

High Commissioner of India, H.E Santosh Jha and Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development and Housing Mr. W.S. Sathyananda signed and exchanged diplomatic letters on 21 March 2024 to formalize Government of India’s (GOI) decision to provide an additional grant of SLR 150 million for the Construction of Houses and Infrastructure Facilities in Sobitha Thero Village in Anuradhapura. With this, GOI’s total commitment to the project currently stands at SLR 450 million.

With the formalization of the additional grant amount, 90 houses shall be constructed in the village with the GOI grant.  The project is currently underway and the proposed houses are at various stages of construction. The project is being executed in collaboration with Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thero Commemoration Foundation.

Responding to the drastic changes in the economic landscape of Sri Lanka, GOI decided to infuse additional funds into 9 ongoing grant projects in order to expeditiously complete these projects, while also minimizing the impact of the sharp rise in cost of construction materials on the original scope of projects. The extent of additional funds is upto 50% of the original commitment by GOI in each of the 9 projects.