A new residential area is expected to spring up in the flood-hit Shalan Town, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, to relocate the homeless flood victims, local government source said on Sunday.

The residential area will be built on the highland at the northern part of Shalan, about 32 meters higher than the average altitude of the town.

Every flat is designed to occupy an area of 80 square meters, the local source said, and the first period of the project is planned to relocate more than 100 disaster-hit families.

The municipal government of the nearby Mudanjiang City will be responsible for the construction project.

Heavy rainstorms and ensuing mountain torrents on June 10 drowned 106 people in Shalan, including 102 pupils of the Shalan Central Primary School.

The reconstruction of the primary school is already underway.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2005)