'Dream come true'
Tukaram Lambe, teacher and survivor, said, "In these two and half years, living in a cramped space, struggling for electricity, we have all been waiting for this day to come. We are lucky that the rehabilitation work was carried out so quickly.

Getting such a house is like a dream come true. We have been told to get ready to enter our new house on the eve of the Marathi new year."

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Situated in Ambegaon taluka, about 140 km from Pune, disaster had struck Malin on July 30, 2014, burying 151 villagers and 200 cattle under tonnes of debris.

The 78 surviving families have since been living in cramped steel sheds.

New homes, new life
Come March 29, the survivors will finally be able to move into brand new Alu-Form (Aluminium formation) houses built 2 km from the site of the tragedy. Each house is sized at around 450 square feet area.

Apart from the 78 houses, 18 other public buildings have also been built to provide residents with amenities such as a gram panchayat office, school, common cattle shed and temple.

Govind Limbe, a farmer, said, "We stayed in a 20x20 room. We had no scope to rebuild our home. These new houses have been designed very nicely, and are also well painted." The government had granted Rs 10 crore for this project, setting aside R2 lakh for each house. However, thanks to corporate donations, funding was increased to Rs 6-8 lakh for each house.

Officialspeak
Collector Saurabh Rao said, "This is a dream come true. Tentatively, we are planning the inauguration on March 28, as per the availability of the CM, HRD Ministry, Rehabilitation relief ministry and forest ministry. In the next couple of days, the date will be fixed."

Prashant Patil, executive engineer with the PWD, said, "The houses have been built with the best technology and with all amenities seen in cities. The credit for this goes to collector Saurabh Rao, as he followed up on the issue."

The site of the tragedy will be beautified and turned into a memorial for those who were killed in the Malin landslide.