As part of the ongoing effort to rebuild the provinces heavily impacted by the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye earlier this year, Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister Mehmet Özhaseki on Sunday announced construction plans for over 250,000 residences in Hatay.
"It is our duty to raise our 11 cities affected by the earthquakes as soon as possible. Our housing blocks and rural houses are rapidly rising in Hatay, the city of civilizations," the minister said.
A detailed breakdown of the housing plan revealed that a total of 254,195 houses would be built, comprising 220,066 disaster houses and 34,129 rural houses.
Further providing information on the progress, Özhaseki said, "We have already delivered the tender for 32,715 disaster houses; construction is underway for 30,088 houses and 48 shops."
Ensuring that they aim to deliver the houses to residents as soon as possible, the minister vowed to restore Hatay to its old days.
On rural housing development, Özhaseki emphasized adherence to local architecture, stating: "In total, 34,129 village houses will be constructed, including social reinforcement areas. The tender process for these houses has been completed in 244 villages across the province, with construction having already commenced for 6,847 rural houses and 947 barns."
The minister specifically highlighted Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Malatya and Adıyaman as provinces with the highest number of housing constructions, given the severity of the tremors.
According to the statement provided, houses are being built by Türkiye's Housing Development Administration (TOKI) using raft foundations and tunnel formwork systems in areas not exposed to fault lines and liquefaction.
Last week, during a video conference on reconstruction, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged a swift recovery after two earthquakes claimed thousands of lives and demolished thousands of buildings. According to the latest government assessments, the cost incurred by the earthquake to the country's economy is estimated to be a total of $104 billion (TL 2.74 trillion).
"We will deliver them (homes) to the rightful owners. Our goal is to build a total of 650,000 houses. We're determined to make our cities safer and more resilient than before," he said.
On Feb. 6, 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude quakes struck numerous Turkish provinces claiming over 50,000 lives. Around 14 million people in Türkiye were affected by the quakes as well as many thousands of others in northern Syria.
