YEREVAN (ARKA), April 22–The Armenian government has released additional 3.3 billion dram to finance construction of residential compounds in Armenia’s second largest town of Gyumri and other towns and villages in the so-called disaster zone that was razed to ground by a 1988 earthquake, urban planning minister Vardan Vardanian told a news conference today.

He said initially 1,056 apartments had been planned to be build by May, but the date was postponed until June after President Serge Sarkisian recently visited the area, instructing the ministry to pay a greater attention to connecting new homes to the natural gas network, installing heating systems and so on.

The 2010 budget earmarks 24 billion dram for the disaster zone. The minister said the extra release of 3.3 billion dram will be spent to eliminate the shortcomings found by the president. Vardan Vardanian said also construction of schools will be launched in the area from mid-May.

“We are planning to complete construction of housing for homeless people in 2013. Currently we have a list of 7,000 such families,” he said.

The December 1998 earthquake razed buildings in Gyumri and Spitak to the  ground and destroyed over 100 rural communities, killing according to government figures 25,000 people and injuring 140,000. Half a million people lost their homes.