By Ifham Nizam
The National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) and Holcim (Lanka) Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday to launch an islandwide project to facilitate home building.

This new project named ‘Homes for All’ has for reaching goals such as stimulating the local construction industry and bringing about rapid economic growth.

Holcim (Lanka) Limited Chairman Manilal Fernando said: "As a world leading cement manufacturer, Holcim can draw on their global expertise in constructing houses. As the only local integrated manufacturer of cement, we are making different cement under the Sanstha brand to suit different local application needs. We have all the necessary resources and expertise to help the NHDA to launch and sustain this important project. NHDA Chairman, Major General Sarath Munasinghe said that housing promotion programmes such as ‘Diri Piyasa’ and the Plantation Housing Programme recently launched under the guidance of the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Housing and Plantation Infrastructure, Minister Arumugam Thondaman provide the ideal platform for this project.

Immediate project plans corer creating public enthusiasm about house building encouraging the use of available loan schemes to build homes, disseminating house building know-how, training and certifying masons, and promoting house building as a vocation.

According to Fernando the project will help ease the unemployment problem by teaching interested people to become house builders.

This will be done through awareness creation, training, skill development and certification provided by the Holcim Masons Academy, and similar training programmes conducted by several departments of the Housing and Plantation Infrastructure, Ministry.

The Project will act as a focal point to mobilise and coordinate the intellectual, infrastructure human and financial resources available within all such organisations, which have become actively involved in the project as strategic partners.

The pilot project will commence next month in Ginigathhena where 200 houses are targeted, and the entire project targets nearly 300,000 houses especially for the plantation sector.

Holcim (Lanka) Ltd. Marketing and Sales Vice President Patrick Walser said that if the said project is successful they would be targeting a similar project for the low income groups in the city of Colombo and surburbs.