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Sri Lanka

S.Lankan tsunami reconstruction to start at last

COLOMBO, April 7 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government said on Thursday that a national tsunami reconstruction plan can finally get under way three months on because donors have now firmly committed $1.5 billion worth of tsunami aid.

Only a fortnight ago, the government's Taskforce for Rebuilding the Nation said rebuilding the tsunami-damaged infrastructure had been delayed because donor aid was only trickling in.

"It is from now that the construction phase begins," Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama told a news conference organised by the Taskforce.

"Now we are going into the third phase... the full reconstruction and infrastructural phase, for which we have now got a lot of donors," he added.

Donors have pledged a total of $2.0 billion to Sri Lanka, but around $500 million of that amount is yet to be signed and sealed.

Aid groups and non-governmental organisations scattered along the coast have already started rebuilding some schools and clusters of temporary shelters for thousands of people displaced by the tsunami, but not on a grand scale.

Sri Lanka estimates it will cost around $1.8 billion to rebuild coastal towns and infrastructure flattened by Asia's tsunami, which killed around 40,000 people in Sri Lanka alone.

The government's draft reconstruction plan, which has yet to be finalised, envisages building 62 townships, 75 miles (120 km) of electric railway, improving 55 miles of highway, and granting affected families assistance to rebuild homes.

The government has also been promised a one-year debt moratorium by the world's richest nations, and is now lobbying for it to be extended through 2007.