By Dinasena Rathugamage BBC Sinhala service, Vavuniya

	Business in Vavuniya is booming with the arrival of the IDPs

Nearly 375,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) are housed within the Vavuniya district.

The government pays each contractor a sum of Rs. 130 to provide three meals to an IDP.

"I provided meals to IDPs worth Rs. 18.7 million over the last eight months," Piyal Jayasuriya, a food supplier in Vavuniya, told BBC Sinhala service.

37 were initially offered contracts to supply food when there were 20,000 IDPs, he says, currently 150 contractors are supplying meals as the IDP numbers rapidly increased during the last stages of the war.

Rohantha Karunadasa, a young businessman in Nedunkulam, Vavuniya, says, all those supplied meals to IDPs saw their profits rapidly increasing.

150 contractors are paid Rs. 130 per person to supply daily meals to over 300,000 Tamil displaced people

"Having no price control in Menik Farm camp until recently is one reason," he says.

Menik farm is the biggest among the IDP camps in the district.

"So everybody made huge profits as the items were sold for prices they imagined. Many people were able to buy new vehicles," Mr. Karunadasa told BBC Sandeshaya.

New industrial units and factories are being opened in the district as a result of the influx of Tamil IDPs.

Construction boom

"All contractors are struggling to cope since the arrival of new IDPs," says Vasantha Rajakaruna, a contractor who builds new camps.

"Those contractors who use heavy machines such as diggers, bulldozers and tippers make tens of millions of rupees a month," he told bbcsinhala.com.

The demand for building materials has increased.

Nimal Rajapaksa, who has a machine that produces cement blocks, says Vavuniya residents are also constructing new houses as a result of thriving businesses.

"There are many more residents here in Vavuniya now so you can sell whatever you want to," he says.