The Cabinet of Ministers has cleared an additional Rs. 129.69 million for the reconstruction of 90 more places of worship damaged by Cyclone Ditwah, the latest tranche in a multi-faith restoration programme that has expanded steadily since April.
Reconstruction has already begun at 178 religious sites under a separate Rs. 800 million pool mobilised by the Buddhasasana Fund, the Central Cultural Fund and the Anagarika Dharmapala Foundation, according to Cabinet papers reported by Ada Derana. That pool includes the Rs. 200 million tranche Cabinet first approved on April 27, 2026.
Cabinet papers laid out the scale of the religious-property damage caused by the November 2025 storm: 758 Buddhist temples, 272 Hindu religious sites, 199 Islamic places of worship and 99 Christian religious places sustained varying degrees of damage.
The new tranche covers 90 more sites from among the remaining affected places of worship. The programme will be implemented under Circular No. 01/2026 issued by the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, which submitted the proposal to Cabinet.
The decision extends the religious-site track of the wider Ditwah recovery effort. Cabinet previously approved a separate Rs. 550 million restoration package for archaeological shrines damaged by the cyclone, and the twin housing and religious-site relief rollout opened in late April pairs places-of-worship work with 1,000 interim shelters being built by Army engineers across Kegalle, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla.
Cabinet did not name the specific 90 sites covered by Tuesday’s tranche or set a completion date. Cyclone Ditwah killed 646 people, displaced 2.2 million and caused US$4.1 billion in damage when it struck in November 2025.
