First REDRH house of South district inaugurated and handed over

GANGTOK, 26 Dec: The first house in the South district completed under the Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses [REDRH] scheme was inaugurated at Tinik Chispoani under Jorethang Block on Christmas eve, 24 December. Tea Board chairman, Gagan Rai, inaugurated the REDRH house of beneficiary Anand Jogi. An official press communiqué informs that this is the first REDRH house in South Sikkim to be have been completed and handed over to the beneficiary.
Mr Rai was accompanied by ADC (Dev) Deepak Pradhan, BDO Jorethang Bhumika Pradhan, Panchayat members and officials from BAC, Jorethang and the general public. During the day the Chairman also inaugurated 7 new CMRHM (Chief Ministers Rural Housing Scheme) houses under Jorethang BAC and handed them over to the beneficiaries.
In his brief interaction with the crowd gathered during the function, the Mr Rai congratulated the BDO and the engineers and officers of the blocks for ensuring timely and speedy construction of the earthquake damaged houses. He stressed that this is a noble initiative wherein the government has undertaken reconstruction of all the houses damaged by the earthquake which shook Sikkim last year.
ADC (Dev) Deepak Pradhan expressed satisfaction on the progress of the works undertaken under REDRH and CMRHM as well under Jorethang BAC. He assured the BDO and her team of all technical and administrative support from the District for completion of the REDRH houses. He also stressed on the timely completion while ensuring adherence to quality construction and technical specification of the houses undertaken under REDRH. He appreciated the fact that Jorethang BAC was the last to start the work due to some technical problems but the first to complete the work.
The BDO Jorethang thanked all the engineers and staff for their effort in ensuring timely completion of the house. She expressed sincere gratitude to the state government for providing all the necessary help and support to the block regarding the programme.
She added that the programme was a joint effort of all and the cooperation of each and every member involved in the project was responsible for ensuring the timely completion of the houses and further expressed confidence of timely completion of all the houses taken up in the first phase, the release mentions.
REDRH (Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses) is a Rs 391 crore project as part of the special package of the PM for the reconstruction of 7,972 houses damaged in the earthquake at a unit cost of Rs 4.89 lakh each. Out of the 911 houses sanctioned in South District, the BDO Jorethang informed that 101 houses have been allotted to beneficiaries in Jorethang block.
The REDRH house construction is undertaken in five stages namely ground leveling of the site, plinth level complete, roof level complete, house complete and handing over the house to the beneficiaries. The reconstruction module follows strict technical specifications and quality control laid by the Rural Management and Development to make the houses earthquake resistant.
The REDRH is a new and special programme in the state of Sikkim wherein the houses which were damaged by last year’s earthquake would be reconstructed with earthquake resistant features. The guidelines for the construction are on the lines of Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Mission (CMRHM). The construction of these houses is being implemented by the Block Administrative Center and continually monitored by the District Administration.