In spite of financial constraints, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal says he plans to accelerate the home construction programme so that 200 citizens will receive houses every week from January.He was speaking at the weekly key distribution drive, held at Corinth Hills, Ste Madeleine, yesterday.
In his feature address, Moonilal said all 100 people who got homes yesterday were selected by random draw.He said houses have already been distributed at Fairfield Estates, Princes Town; Mora Heights, Rio Claro; Cashew Gardens, Exchange Couva; Beetham Gardens; Greenvale Park, La Horquetta; Oasis Greens and Cypress Hills, Union Hall.
Since the start of the new year, Moonilal said, 6,800 houses have been distributed."Our plan is to build more houses. We promise to deliver an additional 3,955 housing units within the next one to two years."Giving a breakdown of the distribution, Moonilal said 920 units will be distributed in Indian Trail, 398 in Bon Aire North, 1,204 in Trestrail Farms, D'Abadie, 116 in Buen Intento, 458 in Eden Gardens, 458 in Cypress Hills, 450 at Wellington Gardens, 450 in Carlton Lane, San Fernando.
He added that 521 units will come on stream through the HDC's in-fill programme at Beetham Gardens, adding that a further 12 units will be distributed at Exchange Couva, 469 at Pierre Road, Princes Town, 87 at Glenroy Settlement, and 24 units at Toco."In next 12 to 24 months, we will have almost 4,000 new housing units and from January we will deliver 200 houses per week," he said.
He said his ministry was working with the Finance Ministry to get the requisite funding. He also said anyone was welcome to do investigations into the HDC as all transactions were above board.