TEHRAN – Some 2,500 residential units have been reconstructed in quake-stricken regions of the western province of Kermanshah, and will be inaugurated by the end of the current [Iranian calendar] year (March 20), deputy director for housing department of Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation has said.

After inauguration of the aforesaid housing units, retrofitting and rebuilding of the whole houses in the quake-hit villages will be completed, ISNA quoted Ebrahim Bazian as saying on Tuesday.

“Over 10,000 residential units owned by the families covered by the Foundation, have been destroyed through the earthquake last year, 5,000 of which needed reconstruction and the rest retrofitting,” he explained.

He went on to say that some 2,500 quake-affected houses have been retrofitted and provided to the residents, and the other 2,500 is being reconstructed and provided by the next month.

The whole reconstruction and renovation measures have cost the Foundation some 600 billion rials (around $14 million), Bazian noted.

There are 100,000 families under the foundation’s coverage who are residing in rental houses nationwide, so that the Foundation is going to grant them housing units, he highlighted, adding, the rest of financially struggling families also will receive rental assistance.

On November 12, 2017, a destructive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Sarpol-e Zahab in Kermanshah. Some 90,000 houses were partly or completely damaged by the tremor. Sadly, the quake took over 660 lives and left more than 10,000 injured.

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