KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 25

Ninety-one per cent of the private houses that suffered irreparable damage during the devastating earthquakes of 2015 have either been reconstructed or are being rebuilt.

This was revealed through the progress report made public today on the occasion of five years of the establishment of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA).

According to NRA, 91 per cent of work towards reconstruction of private houses destroyed by the 2015 temblor has been completed. While reconstruction of 69.9 per cent of houses has been completed, 21.1 per cent of the houses are under construction.

The NRA has signed an agreement with 796,245 service-seekers to rebuild private houses. Of them, 556,487 have completed reconstruction of their houses.

Meanwhile, the reconstruction authority has claimed that reconstruction of 168,083 houses will be completed within the current fiscal year.

Similarly, towards reconstruction of schools, NRA had targeted to complete rebuilding of 7,553 school buildings.

However, only 6,085 school buildings have been reconstructed so far and reconstruction of 1,468 is underway.

Similarly, 698 health institutions across the country have been reconstructed while 143 buildings are under construction.

However, NRA had targeted to complete reconstruction of 1,196 health institutions.

Towards security forces, 214 buildings have been reconstructed so far against the target of 216 set by the NRA.

As per the report, 375 government buildings have been reconstructed compared to the target of 415.

Meanwhile, NRA has completed reconstruction of 465 heritage sites out of 920 damaged sites, while out of 1,320 damaged monasteries, NRA has completed reconstruction of 294.

According to NRA, a total of Rs 339 billion has been mobilised in the last five years for the reconstruction. The total budget of NRA is Rs 488 billion.

The Cabinet meeting held on November 30 had decided to extend the tenure of NRA by a year to complete the reconstruction works. Otherwise, the NRA was supposed to wrap up all its activities by December 25. The extension of the deadline means the tenure of the authority will end on December 25, 2021.

Over the next seven-and a-half months, the authority will complete the reconstruction activities while in the remaining period, it will work on documentation of the reconstruction activities.