Jaffna (Sri Lanka): Five school buildings constructed with the grant provided by India was handed over to the people of Sri Lanka during a special event organised on Wednesday at St. Henry’s College, in Jaffna city of Sri Lanka's Northern province.
The new buildings were jointly inaugurated by the Governor of the Northern Province P.S.M. Charles and the Deputy High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Vinod K. Jacob.
One new school building each in J/Ilavalai St. Henry’s College, J/Katheeja Muslim Mahalir Vidyalaym, J/Valalai AMTMS, J/Varuthalaivilan AMTMS (all in Jaffna) and two buildings in Mu/Visuvanathar Primary School in Vavuniya were inaugurated.
The event, which coincided with the Thai Pongal festival, was attended by several senior government officials, leaders from the region, students and teachers of the schools, apart from local residents.
These buildings are part of new classroom buildings being constructed in 27 schools in the Northern Province at a cost of 250 million Sri Lankan Rupees. Of these, construction of 20 school buildings has been completed and inaugurated including the five buildings handed over on Wednesday.
The construction work of the remaining seven school buildings are expected to be completed shortly.
This project is part of Government of India’s continued people-oriented development cooperation with Government of Sri Lanka.
India’s overall commitment of development assistance to Sri Lanka stands at a total of around US$ 3.5 billion and among these, US$ 560 million is pure grant assistance.
Out of the total commitment of 63,000 houses, 47,500 houses have already been built.
Besides, various projects undertaken for rehabilitation and resettlement, Government of India has constructed a total of 46, 000 houses in the region.
The government of India has also assisted the Faculty of Agriculture and Engineering in Kilinochchi campus of Jaffna University with equipment and skill components worth SLR 600 million.
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The ongoing development cooperation projects in the Northern Province under Government of India’s grant assistance include construction of Cultural Centre in Jaffna, construction of 3, 000 Rain Water Harvesting units, construction of 25 model villages consisting of 600 houses, establishing a Business/ICT Incubator Center in Jaffna among others.
