KATHMANDU: Developers of apartments and other multipurpose buildings will have to come up with a decision soon on whether their structures need to be demolished or not. A guideline endorsed to pull down risky infrastructure has given a 15-day timeline to owners or developers to conduct a technical study.

The directive on removing infrastructure that have become unsafe after the devastating earthquake of April 25 says that developers will have to hire a technical expert to conduct the study. Based on the technical study report submitted by developers, a nine-member Central Direction Committee of the government will take the final decision to issue a permit on whether to allow maintenance or retrofitting or demolish the building.

A rapid assessment of apartments after the earthquake has revealed that 81 per cent of apartments evaluated are not fit to live in. Of the 41 highrise apartments inspected by a technical team of the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC), only eight were found habitable, 31 had some degree of threat to occupants, and two apartments were severely damaged.

The guideline issued by the government through a Cabinet decision, on June 14, also has a provision under which if the technical study report submitted is not satisfactory, the direction committee can form a technical team and conduct a separate study. “It will be the responsibility of developers or house owners to bear the cost of demolition,” states the directive.

In case the risky infrastructure are not demolished even after the study concludes to do so, the government will itself demolish such structures and charge the expenses incurred from concerned developers or house owners. In this regard, the Chief District Officer has been entrusted the power to issue an order to demolish unsafe infrastructure. The government will also provide technical and equipment support if required to owners to demolish their infrastructure after necessary charges are paid for.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), a total of 527,502 houses (including 2,673 owned by the government) have been destroyed completely by the earthquake. Similarly, 281,598 houses that include 3,757 houses owned by the government have been partially damaged. The directive has already been circulated to concerned government agencies by MoHA for implementation, as per DUDBC.

As per the directive, the committee will be headed by a joint secretary level official of the Ministry of Urban Development and its secretariat will be established at DUDBC. Other members in the committee include officials from the MoHA, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Kathmandu Metropolitan City as members and a senior divisional engineer of DUDBC as member secretary.

To determine whether houses require demolition or not at municipality and Village Development Committee (VDC) level, there will be a technical team in each municipality and VDC. In Kathmandu Metropolitan City, team will be under coordination of chief of its Physical Development Division. In other municipalities, an engineer will head the team.

In municipalities and VDCs that do not have engineers, it will be the responsibility of the District Technical Committee to send engineers for coordination.