KATHMANDU, MARCH 8

Bhoomi Pooja for the reconstruction of Shree Bishnu Devi Secondary School in Chandragiri Municipality was performed today. The school is being built with fund from the Government of India.

Minister of Education, Science and Technology Krishna Gopal Shrestha and Praphullachandra Sharma, head of Reconstruction and Development Cooperation wing of the Embassy of India, jointly inaugurated the reconstruction project.

Shree Bishnu Devi Secondary School is the 68th school being built under the GoI reconstruction grant assistance in the education sector.

Mayor of Chandragiri Municipality Ghanashyam Giri, officials of Project Director of Central Level Project Implementation Unit Building of the National Reconstruction Authority and Embassy of India officials were present at the inauguration today.

The secondary school is being reconstructed at an estimated cost of Rs 64.9 million and will be earthquake-resilient.

The new infrastructure will include three blocks; educational block, administrative block and Lab cum Library block. The school will have 13 classrooms, exam halls, lab rooms, computer rooms, library, room for School Management Committee, administrative rooms and separate sanitation facilities for boys and girls. The technicality of the reconstruction project will be provided by the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, a premier institute in India in the field earthquake-resilient reconstruction.

India has committed approximately US$ 50 million for reconstruction of a total of 71 educational institutions across eight districts of Nepal affected by the 2015 earthquakes.

Reconstruction of eight schools has already been completed. Contract has already been awarded for reconstruction of two more schools in Kavre district and the work is scheduled to start soon.

India has also committed a reconstruction grant of US $ 200 million for reconstruction projects in housing, health and cultural heritage sectors.

Presently, nearly 47,000 houses, under owner driven model, have already been completed in Gorkha and Nuwakot districts and work on the remaining houses is under way.

The NRA and the respective municipal authorities requested beneficiaries to complete reconstruction work before the monsoon rains.

India has also pledged support for the reconstruction of a total of 147 health buildings and restoration/retrofitting of 28 cultural heritage sites in 11 districts of Nepal affected by earthquakes. The Indian Embassy, issuing a press release, stated that work on both these sectors had started.

Both the NRA and the embassy are working closely to complete reconstruction projects at the earliest.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 09, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.