Türkiye to build 30,000 homes in quake-hit areas; work to begin in March

Türkiye has said it will begin mass construction of homes next month for the survivors of twin earthquakes and the area for new settlements has been identified in all quake-hit provinces.

"Construction will be launched by March," Türkiye's Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Murat Kurum said on Friday of the post-quake rebuilding process involving 30,000 homes to begin with.

Kurum said land for new constructions has been identified in provinces hit hard by February 6 quakes that left almost 40,000 people dead and toppled or damaged tens of thousands of buildings.

He said the new buildings "will not be higher than three to four floors" and will be planned "according to the local culture, tradition and customs."

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'Disaster of the Century'

Kurum said Türkiye continues to assess damage to properties caused by the "Disaster of the Century".

He said some 7328 experts are engaged in damage assessment and some three million apartments in 684,000 buildings have been inspected so far.

The minister said 345,000 apartments in 90,609 buildings are either completely damaged, or heavily damaged or need urgent demolition.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes on February 6 were centered in Kahramanmaras province and struck 10 other provinces — Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes, Turkish officials say.

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