LONDON, February 17. /TASS/. Rebuilding earthquake-ravaged houses and creating infrastructure facilities necessary for the reconstruction may cost $100 bln, said Eyup Muhcu, head of the architects’ chamber at the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects.
According to him, the disaster damaged 3.4 mln buildings and half of them will have to be demolished. "In order to rebuild these homes, you also have to build infrastructure and public facilities, so we can speak of a preliminary estimated cost of $100 bln for reconstruction," The Financial Times quoted him as saying on Friday.
According to the newspaper, experts do not yet have full information on the scale of the destruction so the estimates of the reconstruction vary.
A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, located in the country’s southeast, on February 6. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in ten provinces as well as in neighboring countries, including Syria. The latest reports say that more than 38,000 people have lost their lives in Turkey and over 105,000 have been injured.