KATHMANDU: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged $600 million in assistance for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of earthquake shattered Nepal, with a majority of the support aimed towards infrastructure development.

“Ninety per cent of the assistance will go towards infrastructure projects,” said ADB President Takehiko Nakao in a press briefing organised by ADB Nepal Mission on Thursday Nakao also addressed the International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction (ICNR), which was organised by the government on Thursday to seek resources from international donor communities for the reconstruction and rehabilitation works in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Nakao informed that $200 million emergency assistance had already been approved by the ADB board on June 24. This fund will be utilised to rebuild and restore schools, roads and public buildings. “I believe that Nepal will emerge stronger from this catastrophe, and move along the path of inclusive and sustainable growth,” he said.

In addition, ADB will provide budget support worth $30 million for rural finance and $15 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR).

ADB had previously suspended grant aid to Nepal in 2014 citing the country’s improved capacity of debt servicing and JFPR assistance being provided now is due to the devastation caused by the earthquake of April 25. ADB had released $3 million immediately after the quake to support the government’s rescue and relief operations.

In the press briefing, ADB president also informed that ADB could also reallocate up to $350 million for the subsequent phase of reconstruction from the existing projects without affecting ongoing and planned development programmes.

It is said that ADB’s emergency assistance of $200 million will help rebuild at least 700 schools (approximately 7,000 classrooms) to disaster-resilient standards in the earthquake-hit districts.

Likewise, the assistance will also be utilised to rehabilitate around 135 kilometres of strategic roads and 450 kilometres of district roads to re-establish links to worst-affected areas.

Furthermore, it will finance rebuilding or retrofitting of about 300 district-level government buildings to disaster-resilient standards and provide training regarding the preparedness and risk management skills development of about 500 government staffers in implementing agencies.

ADB President Nakao stressed that the government should improve its capacity of spending to utilise the assistance pledged by ADB. The government has planned to recover and reconstruct the damaged properties within five fiscal years, starting next fiscal.

To help meet the financing needs of Nepal, ADB assured that they will also co-finance with other new mechanisms like, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Green Climate Fund in the future.

“Earthquake is a tragedy, but it should not impact human development, poverty reduction and economic growth,” according to Nakao.