Sri Lanka: India gives more grants to build houses, infra in Buddhist sacred town

Colombo, Mar 23 (PTI) India has signed an additional grant of Sri Lanka Rupees 150 million to build houses and infrastructure facilities in the Buddhist sacred town of Anuradhapura, the Indian High Commission has said.

Santosh Jha, the High Commissioner of India, and the relevant Sri Lankan officials on March 21 exchanged letters about the grant to the island nation.

With this, the Indian government's total commitment to the project currently stands at SLR 450 million for the construction of houses and infrastructure facilities in Sobitha Thero village of Anuradhapura.

The late Sobhitha Thero was an iconic Buddhist monk in the island nation's good governance movement.

“Responding to the drastic changes in the economic landscape of Sri Lanka, the Government of India decided to infuse additional funds into nine ongoing grant projects to expeditiously complete these projects, while also minimising the impact of the sharp rise in the cost of construction materials on the original scope of projects. The extent of additional funds is up to 50 per cent of the original commitment by GOI in each of the nine projects," the Indian High Commission said. PTI