Minister of Construction and Infrastructure Dr Abdulla Muththalib on Saturday expressed confidence that important government information would be recovered despite severe fire damage to the building.
The fire, which broke out early Thursday morning, devastated the building housing the Ministry of Housing, Land and Urban Development, and the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure. The adjacent Green Building, home to the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy, was also damaged in the incident.
Speaking to reporters to provide updates of the fire incident on Saturday, Muththalib said a lot of information housed in the building had been backed up to the cloud.
According to the Minister, no information on housing nor the applications of the housing loan schemes had been lost in the fire.
Muththalib said the top priority for the authorities is to recover the data and provide services to the people as soon as possible, assuring the public that government services will continue.
"Now we have to look how much of the historical information and data related to the work done in the past we have lost. Including whether we can recover storage from the servers on site or not," he said.
The functioning of the three ministries affected by the fire on Thursday has been shifted to Dharubaaruge conference hall. The minister said the services of the ministries will be available from Sunday, adding that the necessary workspace and other facilities are being set up for the staff to begin from Sunday.