Resettlement plan for 74,000 Beijing residents

More than 74,000 rural residents living in mountainous areas around Beijing will be moved within five years and relocated to safe sites where there is no risk of flooding or landslides following rain, according to the municipal government.

"Residents living in dangerous areas that are likely to be affected by floods or other geological disasters, like landslides, will be among the first (to move) in 2013," Beijing Daily quoted an unnamed official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Rural Affairs, who is in charge of the resettlement project, as saying on Thursday.

About 17,400 rural residents from 103 Beijing villages will to move to the sites, which must pass a series of evaluations on natural disasters, the report said.

"Governments of districts involved in this project will provide job opportunities as well as a comfortable life for them," the official said.

The funds used for resettlement will come from various channels, including the government budget and donations from society. Part of the costs will fall on the residents themselves.

The Beijing municipal government has allocated 1.2 billion yuan ($188 million) for the resettlement project, and two rounds of residents have been relocated since 2004. More than 62,600 people have been moved away from dangerous mountainous areas.

The heaviest rainfall in 61 years hit the capital on July 21, triggering floods and landslides in mountainous areas and causing 79 deaths in Beijing.

"But the residents moved out in the previous resettlement projects are all safe, proving that the resettlement works. So we’ll push forward it," the official said.