Work officially begins for new housing

GAZİANTEP

Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum has announced that they have started the construction of the 855 houses that will be built in Nurdağı and İslahiye districts of Gaziantep by the Housing Development Administration (TOKİ), adding they will construct a total of 73,972 village houses in the earthquake zone.

Following the earthquake disaster that affected 10 provinces around Kahramanmaraş, the officials rapidly started the construction of new housing for quake survivor citizens.

After completing technical details such as project designs and ground studies, contracts were signed for suitable areas and construction was started.

“We will build 73,972 village houses in the process of the reconstruction of the quake zone. We will build our safe houses with their barns and gardens, preserving the architecture unique to the region,” Kurum said.

He also said that they will build the new cities to be established in the disaster zone away from the fault lines and will deliver the new houses to the rightful owners after six months.

Remarking that certain measures need to be taken for certain ground types, Kurum ensured that as long as necessary precautions are taken, there will not be any problems regarding ground liquefaction.

“For our new settlements, I consulted with experts about how far from the fault line we should start our construction. They said there should be a distance of a minimum of 15 meters. Yet we decided that we will not build anything closer than 500 meters to the fault line,” Kurum said.

Kurum stated that they have decided on a three-stage urbanization model for the earthquake zone and are also working to meet the temporary housing needs of citizens in collaboration with TOKİ.

The officials will start working in the reserve areas that were determined in accordance with the structure of the city.