June 12, 2014

Aamir Saeed

Islamabad...The new houses (click here) are being built in Awaran, an off-grid district that was struck by two major earthquakes only four days apart in September 2013. More than 500 people were killed and around 20,000 houses destroyed.

According to the plan, 80 percent of the 4 billion-rupee ($40.6 million) budget will be spent on rebuilding collapsed housing units and the rest on providing solar energy to all of the new homes.

“It is an owner-driven programme and we hope to complete all the reconstruction work and installation of solar-energy panels in two and half years,” said Aziz Jamali, director of the project being run by the Baluchistan government.

The owner of every house set to be reconstructed will get 250,000 rupees ($2,500) in four instalments, Jamali explained, adding that funding would be stopped to any beneficiary who fails to observe the safety standards issued by the provincial government in the rebuilding process. The first instalment of 88,000 rupees ($900) was released on May 21....