Housing in flooded South Russia to be reconstructed by mid-October

It is necessary to complete the construction of housing in the regions ofthe South Federal District damaged by floods, by the middle of October2002, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said opening a meetingdevoted to restoration activities in the regions of the South FederalDistrict damaged by floods. He pointed out that according to the data ofthe State Construction Committee, there were 12,588 homes, which could notbe repaired. However, only 25 new homes have been built as of today.The Prime Minister pointed out that a part of the damaged regions wouldcompensate lost housing by buying it on the secondary market. "We have amonth and a half at best to complete necessary activities for solvingtheses problems", Kasyanov emphasized. He added that the state wouldallocate RUR2.2bn (about $69.72m) for financing these activities. Accordingto the Prime Minister, the Finance Ministry has already been assigned torelease a corresponding loan.On the whole, Kasyanov pointed out that according to a recently signeddecree, the total amount of resources for building new housing in nineregions of the South Federal District had been increased to RUR6.5bn (about$205.99m)..