The Northwestern mountainous province of Son La is carrying out a plan on upgrading and building 9,539 houses for local people who rendered service to the nation and faced difficulties in residence.

Of the total, over 3,500 new houses will be built, while 6,000 others are to be upgraded, following the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 22/2013 QD/TTg approving the plan for 2014.

Currently, work has been commenced on the construction of 1,057 houses at a cost of 43 billion VND (2.04 million USD) from the central budget, accounting for about 30 percent of the target.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, local authorities have kept a close watch on the work to ensure the quality of the houses, whose floor space is from 30 square metres each.

The province has also drafted a 2015 plan that will support 8,000 families having contributors to the national revolution with about 219 billion VND (10.4 million USD).

Son La has implemented a housing programme since 2008 to benefit as many as 20,000 poor local households from ethnic minority groups with a total investment of 392 billion VND (18.6 million USD).-VNA