TIRANA, Oct.27/ATA/ Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, at the same time Minister of State for Reconstruction and Reform Program stated today that, as of November 20-26, 1050 apartments and individual units will be distributed to the residents affected by the earthquake, while the reconstruction process will continue to be then completed in September 2022.
After today’s meeting of the government, Ahmetaj informed about the important decisions within the reconstruction program.
“This month is very important for the families damaged by the earthquake of the first two years,” Ahmetaj said.
On the eve of the 2nd anniversary of this serious event, Ahmetaj stressed that, “we have been through a process to transfer property ownership to the quake-affected families, including individual unit houses and apartments in many territories of the country.”
Ahmetaj emphasized that the distribution of the new buildings will be performed in two ways.
“First is the priority list, presented in the Normative Act where families with economic assistance are treated, which involves the head of the family (mother) or the families of the killed police officers. With regard to the families with financial assistance, the distribution of newly built homes will be carried out immediately, while for the rest, a public lottery will be held. The lottery will be held in open spaces and it is the obligation and responsibility of the municipalities to start organizing transparent public lotteries to distribute all apartments and individual units,” Ahmetaj said.
According to Ahmetaj, “to date, almost 1100 individual units have been distributed and over 800 grants for reconstruction of buildings categorized into damage scale DS4 have been awarded to families affected by the earthquake 0f 2019.”
“The good news is that a large number of quake-affected families will move into new homes. We will continue this process during December, and throughout the next year until the end of September. We believe that by the end of September next year, all the apartments and individual units built as part of the reconstruction process will be distributed,” Ahmetaj said.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmetaj noted that, the estimated earthquake damage is worth 1.15 billion and donors have provided about 300 million euros in grants.
“The rest of the fund is provided through the state budget. The speed of the process, the transparency of the process, the response to the families has been timely. Transparency has been available in every step of the reconstruction process,” Ahmetaj said. //a.i/
