Damauli, February 14 Construction of over 280 houses under the People’s Residence Programme of the provincial government has been affected due to delay in releasing the third instalment of housing grant under the programme. According to Urban Development and Building Office, Gorkha, Chief Suresh Khanal, some 287 houses are being constructed for Kumal, Darai, Bote, Chepang, Gandharba and Dalit communities with the government support in the district. “While the highest number of houses, 60, are being built in Shuklagandaki Municipality, Byas Municipality has 47 such under-construction houses and Bhimad and Bhanu municipalities each have 35 houses under construction,” Khanal informed. Similarly, while 25, 22, 21 and 16 of such houses are being constructed in Ghiring, Myagde, Devghat and Rishing rural municipalities respectively, 13 houses are being built in Bandipur and Anbukhaireni rural municipalities, each. “We’ve been unable to provide the third tranche of the grant as the ministry concerned has yet to release the fund,” said Khanal. As per the procedure, budget for the construction of two-room concrete house under the programme is provided in four instalments on the basis of technicians’ recommendation. While each beneficiary of the programme gets Rs 83,125 in the first tranche after laying the foundation, additional Rs 99,750 and Rs 116,375 is provided in two successive instalments. The last instalment of Rs 33,250 is provided for latrine and the roof. As per the programme, some Rs 95.427 million has been allocated for the construction of 280-plus houses this fiscal. Last year, 213 houses were handed over to the target group in the district.