Port Blair: Permanent shelters for tsunami victims

Port Blair, Apr 19: Andaman and Nicobar administration today assured that permanent shelters for tsunami-hit people would be ready islands by this December.

''Works is in full swing and we are expecting to finish almost all construction work within the deadline,'' Relief Commissioner Dharam Pal, who is heading the massive post-tsunami rehabilitation work in these remote tsunami ravaged islands, informed newspersons.

A high-level local administration team yesterday inspected the permanent shelter sites of Hut Bay and Bambooflat areas of South Andaman and suggested some minor changes in design to the contractor following public demands.

The Relief Commissioner said due to some protest and resentment about models of houses in Hut Bay islands last year, the construction work there has been delayed by three months.

''People in Hut Bay are now happy with the models of permanent houses and we hope to finish the work in the island by March 2008,'' Mr Pal added.

The centre of India is constructing 9797 permanent shelters for nearly 42,000 homeless people in these geographically scattered islands. A tsunami triggered by a mega Indonesian earthquake in 2004 had killed nearly 3800 people in this archipelago.

Mr Pal said some tsunami-ravaged areas are still inaccessible by roads, where shelter construction work may be further delayed.

''There could be a little slippage of dateline but we want to make sure that the permanent shelters given to all tsunami hit people are best in quality,'' he added.

Meanwhile, the Hindustan Convenant Church, an NGO, has completed its first permanent shelter in Bambooflat village.

It is the first completed permanent shelter in these islands.

UNI