One million temporary homes to be built for Sichuan quake victims

Beijing (China), May 23 : China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Thursday requested local authorities in earthquake-hit areas touild one million temporary homes by August 10 to accommodate the quake victims ofay 12.

The transitional homes should be either assembled with steel sandwich panels or made of light-weight steel and plywood kit sets, according to a circular issued by the ministry.

The size of the houses should be about 20 square meters and have minimum living space for quake victims.

They should be capable of withstanding earthquakes and be recyclable after three to five years of use, said a circular.

According to Xinhua, the circular asked local authorities to construct one primary school, one clinic and one retail store for every 1,000 temporary homes.

It also said that a middle school should be built for every 2,000 houses.

An earthquake of magnitude-8 jolted southwest China and affected many other parts of the country on May 12. The death toll had increased to 51,151 at 10 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Information Office of the State Council.

In Sichuan Province, 2.9 million houses were flattened and almost 14 million others damaged, making millions of people homeless, according to a rough estimate.

ANI