By Sanjib Kumar Roy PORT BLAIR, India, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Nearly all the 46,000 people made homeless by the Asian tsunami on India's Andaman islands will get permanent homes by the end of 2007, a senior official said, but activists on Monday dismissed this as impossible. The 2004 tsunami killed or left missing about 3,500 people in the remote archipelago of 370,000 residents when it slammed into scores of islands. More than 9,700 families are still without permanent homes. "We are sure the work for construction of permanent shelters would be over by the end of 2007 and almost all the tsunami-hit homeless people would get their shelters by then," Dharam Pal, the islands' relief commissioner, told reporters in Port Blair, the capital, late on Sunday. The federal government, which directly rules the island chain more than 2,400 km (1,500 miles) from New Delhi on the mainland, has faced a barrage of criticism for not consulting local tribes and other residents while planning permanent shelters. Activists say people still do not know on which island they will be relocated and fishermen will receive houses on hilltops while farmers will get permanent shelters far from their fields. It will not be possible to provide permanent homes in a year to the tens of thousands of people living in temporary shelters of corrugated iron, which become unbearable in the heat, they add. "The way the work is progressing I feel it will be impossible to complete the construction for permanent shelter as promised by the government," Samir Acharya, of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE), said on Monday. Pal said that completing permanent homes in Great Nicobar -- on the southern tip of the archipelago and far closer to Indonesia than to the Indian mainland -- might extend beyond 2007, due to logistics and damaged coastal roads. Critics say federal planners have ignored the traditional house designs of the Nicobarese, who make up the majority of the homeless. Traditional houses are made of bamboo and wood and are better able to withstand earthquakes than the new prefabricated homes, which were more difficult to maintain and less resistant to tremors, Acharya said. "I fear tribals won't allow the government to carry on with construction work as they are annoyed with the model," he added, referring to the design and materials of the new homes. Public ire over rebuilding efforts spilled into rare violence last month when dozens were injured in clashes with police on Little Andaman island, 100 km (62 miles) south of Port Blair. But the administration says it has extensively consulted residents, including the Nicobarese, on the housing plan. "Tribal people had suggested to us many changes in our models and we have accepted most of them," Pal said. On Thursday, the federal government approved 12.2 billion rupees ($275 million) for reconstruction of houses, water and sewerage systems, community meeting halls and other buildings for tsunami survivors. ($1 = 44.37 rupees)
