Intense work is underway to construct new residential neighbourhood for hundreds of families that were left homeless after the devastating earthquake that struck Albania on Nov 26 last year. Prime Minister Edi Rama and the State Minister for Reconstruction Arben Ahmetaj today visited the 10-ha site picked for construction of some 100 apartment houses and a total of 128 private homes, schools, health care centres, public service offices, green areas, as well as a modern market for locally grown agricultural produce.

“Around 65% of the related infrastructure has completed, whereas work to pave the internal ring road is set to begin next week and is expected to complete in ten days. Work will then begin on the sidewalks and finishes. First layer of asphalt will be paved and work will then be coordinated with builders, who have been awarded the contracts to build apartment buildings and the private homes, so that the final asphalt layer is paved once digging and concreting work completes,” said Dritan Agolli, the Head of the Albanian Development Fund (ADF). Totally brand new infrastructure will be built in this site, including sewerage and wastewater systems, water supply network, power supply and telecommunications system. Agolli informed that building new infrastructure on the grounds is expected to complete in the next two weeks and the ground will be ready for other firms and operators to build individual homes and the apartment buildings.

In addition to radically changing the quality of life of children, parents, grandparents, who will soon be living in new neighbourhoods, the Reconstruction Program is also creating tens of thousands new jobs in the quake-affected areas. According to the Minister of State for Reconstruction Arben Ahmetaj, “an empirical data from the labour market and companies today show that almost 1300-1500 new jobs will be created during the first phase, while their number is set to quadruple with the start of work to construct urban residential neighbourhoods.