President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday announced that construction of new housing in earthquake zones will commence in March, adding that the government has created a TL 20 billion ($106 million) investment support package for the affected areas.
The president said they would rebuild and revive 11 cities in southeastern Türkiye destroyed in the Feb. 6 twin earthquakes, considering their businesses, farming and agriculture, industry, as well as cultural and historical heritage.
In his statement, he specified that 40,426 residences will be constructed in Hatay, 45,067 in Kahramanmaraş, 25,882 in Adıyaman and 18,544 in Gaziantep.
Furthermore, the president declared the building of 44,770 residences in Malatya, 9,550 in Osmaniye, 6,000 in Diyarbakır, 3,000 in Şanlıurfa, 3,750 in Elazığ, 2,500 in Adana, and 250 in Kilis.
Erdoğan also said that debris from over 71,000 independent units have been removed from approximately 21,000 completely destroyed buildings. Additionally, 412,000 independent units were evacuated from 118,000 buildings that are to be demolished immediately or are heavily damaged.
He informed that the needs for the accommodation of 1,684,000 citizens have been fulfilled.
Currently, 65,000 containers are being installed, and the government plans to increase the number to 100,000 in the first stage. He also confirmed that in case of higher demand, the number of containers can be increased up to 200,000.
The government has also taken several measures to support citizens affected by the earthquake.
Credit debts for individuals living in heavily damaged provinces and districts will be postponed for six months, while those living in other affected areas will have a one-month postponement.
Public banks will cancel the credit debts of citizens who lost their lives in the earthquake.
The Treasury-backed loan payments of 150,000 tradespeople, whose businesses were damaged in the earthquake, have been postponed for six months through state-owned Halkbank.
The loan payments of 152 municipalities in the heavily devastated region have been postponed for three months.
The Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) package has been increased from TL 250 billion to TL 350 billion to mitigate the negative impact of the earthquake on the national economy.