Lafarge provides free benefits for home builders

Friday, 5 December 2014 00:31 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Various studies, including those done by the World Bank, estimate the housing shortage in Sri Lanka to be in the range of 200,000 to 600,000 units. This phenomenon can be explained due to the difficulty of procuring land, legal and regulation issues and lack of suitable finance schemes for individual home builders. As a result, the majority of the population – especially people with lower incomes – do not have access to decent housing. Therefore, Lafarge Mahaweli Cement has put in place a long-term program named Savi Piyasa to provide a number of benefits free of charge to Sri Lankan individual home builders. With support provided by Lafarge, communities would now have the opportunity of realising their dream of owning a home with relative ease. Sahan Tilekerathne, Project Coordinator of Lafarge says that the company would draw up municipal plans, for houses estimated at Rs. 2 to 9 million, free of cost. Lafarge will also partner with banks for providing cost free assistance to applicants in preparing their loan applications. “We would be preparing Estimates and Bills of Quantities, Housing Plans free of charge as well as assist with all the documentation required by the banks for granting the housing loans,” said the Project Coordinator, addressing a workshop for masons in the Kadawatha area. As at today, almost 100 families have benefitted from our services. Through Savi Piyasa, Lafarge Sri Lanka will provide many people with the opportunity to build their own house at a price affordable to them, which will eventually contribute towards uplifting lifestyles and building better cities. The masonry workshop, one of many conducted by Lafarge, was held to educate masons on the safety measures they need to take into account in their day to day operations. Over 300 masons from Kadawatha and the surrounding areas participated in the workshop and were provided masonry tools as well as safety headgear by Lafarge Mahaweli Cement.