Kathmandu, November 22 Out of the 432,738 beneficiary households that have received the first tranche of government’s housing grant, only 11,989 have initiated the process of rebuilding their houses in the 11 worst quake-affected districts outside Kathmandu Valley as of today, according to the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA). The Central Level Project Implementation Unit (CLPIU) under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has been collecting the database of the households being reconstructed with the support of the engineers mobilised in different villages. Shiva Hari Sharma, chief of CLPIU, said that eligible beneficiaries from Sindhupalchowk, Kavre, Gorkha, Ramechhap, Makawanpur and Rasuwa districts have started to apply for the second instalment of government’s aid as they have laid the foundation for reconstruction of their houses after receiving Rs 50,000 as first tranche.

By the numbers

District Reconstruction initiated Dhading 2,143 Dolakha 1,214 Gorkha 1,124 Kavre 995 Makawanpur 351 Nuwakot 3,162 Okhaldhunga 463 Ramechhap 700 Rasuwa 128 Sindhuli 126 Sindhupalchok 1,583 According to Ram Prasad Thapaliya, spokesperson for NRA, engineers mobilised in various places can recommend for the second instalment as the NRA has already introduced Individual Housing Reconstruction Guideline. “Reconstruction of individual homes is expected to gather pace as over 81 per cent of the total beneficiary households in 11 districts, that is 531,964 families, have received the first instalment,” said Thapaliya. “Households will be eligible to get the second tranche after the engineers mobilised by the MoUD and municipalities verify that the foundation of the house has been laid.” The incumbent government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal has announced that the grant amount would be raised from Rs 200,000 announced earlier to Rs 300,000. The government is preparing to distribute Rs 150,000 as second instalment and Rs 100,000 as final instalment and 25 per cent of the last instalment needs to be used for solar installation or for biogas. To receive the second and third instalments, individual households must adopt earthquake-resilient designs of buildings approved by NRA, according to Thapaliya.