Colombo, Feb 24 (IANS): Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday handed over 155 houses built under an Indian project to people in the island nation's tea-producing region populated by "Indian Tamils".

Present on the occasion here was Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

The houses were built under the Indian Housing Project for people at the Bridwell Estate in Bogawantalawa at Hatton.

Wickremesinghe thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development support extended to Sri Lanka, where a dragging ethnic insurgency ended in May 2009 as the military crushed the Tamil Tigers.

Sandhu congratulated the owners of the newly built houses.

Sandhu said the Indian Housing Project in Sri Lanka with a grant of US$ 350 million (close to 50 billion LKR) was the largest Indian grant assistance project in any country.

He said that of the total commitment of 63,000 houses, 47,000 had been built.

Tamils of Indian origin, popularly known as "Indian Tamils", populate the tea estates in Sri Lanka's central hills.