Kathmandu, October 2

Over two-and-a-half years since the country witnessed the devastating earthquakes of April and May 2015, only the 6.56 per cent of personal houses damaged by the natural disaster have been reconstructed on government grant.

Only 50,245 personal houses, out of the total 765,618 collapsed houses, have been rebuilt in the 30 months after the earthquakes. According to the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), 129,309 houses are under construction at present.

More worryingly, the authority has set a deadline to complete the reconstruction of individual houses by the end of this fiscal year. “We have strictly said that the beneficiaries who have received the first tranche must complete the reconstruction of their houses within this fiscal,” said Bhishma Kumar Bhusal, deputy spokesperson for the NRA.

In light of the slow progress of reconstruction of individual houses in the most-affected 14 districts, the NRA started to monitor the reconstruction process. “We discovered that some of the beneficiaries who had received the government grant had misused the funds. Hence, the NRA set the deadline for construction of individual houses utilising government grant,” Bhusal informed.

As per NRA, the least number of houses have been reconstructed in Bhaktapur, out of the 14 worst-affected districts of the country.

Reconstruction update

District

Eligible households

Construction completed

Under construction

Bhaktapur

28,835

362

2,579

Dhading

85,255

8,964

9,835

Dolakha

57,691

8,413

16,979

Gorkha

74,389

4,418

13,036

Kathmandu

48,144

1,680

4,000

Kavre

90,497

3,384

10,089

Lalitpur

31,159

481

2,288

Makwanpur

85,188

2,050

7,480

Nuwakot

72,871

5,223

18,049

Okhaldhunga

36,480

1,674

6,484

Ramechhap

54,345

4,848

10,453

Rasuwa

12,111

1,466

3,347

Sindhuli

62,903

1,662

5,926

Sindhupalchowk

83,589

5,620

18,291

Only 362 houses have been rebuilt in Bhaktapur, while only 481 houses have been reconstructed in Lalitpur. Meanwhile, 8,964 houses have been reconstructed in Dhading, which is highest among the 14 hardest-hit districts.

NRA has listed Bhaktapur, Dhading, Dolakha, Gorkha, Kathmandu, Kavre, Lalitpur, Makwanpur Nuwakot, Okhaldhunga, Ramechhap, Rasuwa, Sindhuli and Sindhupalchowk as worst-affected by the earthquake. Similarly, other 17 districts are listed as less-affected districts.

According to data maintained by the NRA, it had conducted the survey of 996,162 earthquake-affected households across the country and listed 765,618 as being eligible for the housing grant. Similarly, the reconstruction authority has identified 24,991 houses that have to be retrofitted.

The government is providing Rs 300,000 to each family that has lost their house as housing grant in three tranches. They would get Rs 50,000 in the first tranche, Rs 150,000 as the second instalment and Rs 100,000 in the third tranche.

The authority has signed the housing agreement with 640,020 beneficiaries from across the country. Out of them, 609,023 have received the first tranche, 78,635 have received the second tranche and 7,459 have received the third instalment. Moreover, 98,512 beneficiaries have applied for the second tranche and 20,829 beneficiaries have applied for the third tranche of the housing grant.

Similarly, 207,861 households had lodged complaints with the authority claiming they were left out of the beneficiary list. Out of them, 201,951 cases have been reviewed.