Saturday, February 12 2005 22:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Port Blair: The Centre today (Feb 12, 2005) said it would provide 10,000 temporary houses to tsunami-hit people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands by April 15.

"We will provide temporary dwellings, about 10,000 in number, to the needy by April 15," Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters after an Integrated Relief Command meeting chaired by him in Port Blair.

"After the temporary units are given, we will start planning for permanent shelters and building roads, schools and other infrastructure," he said.

Patil said the entire reconstruction work would be done in an imaginative manner so that it exists for another 50 years.