EU to help fund health services in quake-hit India

The European Commission will provide 1.7 billion rupees (€40.7m) to improve health services in the earthquake-hit western Indian state of Gujarat, an official said today.

European Commissioner for Development Poul Nielson and Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday in Ahmadabad, the state capital.

The European Union’s Humanitarian Aid Office had earlier committed 8.6 billion rupees (€206m).

Nielson’s visit is aimed at assessing the long-term assistance needed to help hundreds of thousands of victims of a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake in January 2001 that killed more than 13,000 people in Gujarat state.

Nielson visited the state on the first anniversary of the quake on January 26.

The earthquake, rated the worst natural disaster of 2001 by the US Geological Survey, destroyed 1.2 million homes and caused an estimated £3 billion in damage.