Erra rebuilt 388,949 houses as per seismic resistant designs: Rs 64.75 billion given to victims as housing subsidy

The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) has reconstructed 388,949 houses as per seismic resistant designs and provided Rs 64.75 billions to the victims as the rural housing subsidy, said Lieutenant General Sajjad Akram, Deputy Chairman, Erra here on Thursday.
Erra is now working in full swing for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake 2005 affected areas located in northern parts of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sajjad said while addressing the monthly briefing of the Erra. Sajjad appreciated the zeal, commitment and hard work of all the members of the "Build Back Better Team".
He especially appreciated the progress made and targets achieved in the Rural Housing Reconstruction Programme, which is its flagship programme. The program is taking care of the permanent reconstruction of 462,900 houses that were completely destroyed during the October 8 earthquake of 2005 in northern parts of Pakistan, he added.
So far 388,949 houses have been completely reconstructed as per seismic resistant designs given by Erra, General Sajjad said, adding that the victims have been provided Rs 64.75 billions as the rural housing subsidy by Erra. This, he said, is in addition to 101,091 houses that were partially damaged and 46,725 houses that suffered negligible damage which were given Rs 5 billions and Rs 1.1 billions respectively by Erra.
Erra is only disbursing rural housing trenches for the houses that have been reconstructed as per Erra design and are seismically resistant. This programme will come to an end in June 2009 after successful completion of 36,000 houses that are presently under construction in the earthquake affected areas. The pace of progress in this sector could be measured by the fact that Erra has distributed Rs 1626 million, only during last two months.