Minister of Construction and Infrastructure, Dr Abdulla Muththalib, has assured that no housing-related information was lost in the fire that engulfed the building housing three key ministries on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference held at Dharubaaruge today, the minister addressed public concerns regarding the flat allocation lists and other housing related data. He said that while the affected ministries held substantial data, preliminary assessments indicate that much of it had been backed up.
He said that public housing data and information on housing loans were securely stored in the cloud.
"There are rumors that some government data has been lost, but so far, investigations show that most of it is intact and backed up," Minister Muththalib said.
"We are confident that no housing-related information connected to the public has been lost. Additionally, housing loan information is entirely secured in cloud storage".
The minister also said that services provided by the three ministries would resume from their temporary offices at Dharubaaruge starting tomorrow.
The fire first broke out at the Housing Ministry at approximately 6:30 AM on Thursday and quickly spread to Construction Ministry and adjacent Environment Ministry. The fire was brought under control after four hours, but significant damage was caused to the buildings.