TABRIZ, East Azarbaijan Prov. - Some 930 villages are to go under development projects nationwide by the end of the Second Five-Year Development Plan, said a senior housing official here Sunday. Head of the Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation, Hussein Ali Rowhani added that so far development projects have been implemented in 640 villages. Rowhani pointed out that executive plans have been prepared for 290 other villages.

He added that Rls.200 billion has been earmarked for construction of rural housing units in the current Iranian year (ending March 20, 1998) of which only Rls.70 billion has been paid to applicants. Under the Second Development Plan, the housing foundation is scheduled to construct 900,000 houses in villages, 420,000 of which will be built through banking facilities worth Rls.7.5 billion.

He said that implementation of the projects have proceeded very slowly due to shortage of funds and credits. To implement the projects properly requires at least Rls.500 billion annually, he added. Turning to the activities of the foundation in quake-hit areas, Rowhani said out of 18,000 destroyed and damaged houses in Ardebil Province some 12,500 units and of 25,000 houses in Khorasan Province, 14,500 units have been reconstructed so far.

(IRNA)