NRA mid-term review to realign priorities

Kathmandu, November 20

Halfway through its five-year tenure, the National Reconstruction Authority is preparing a mid-term review to realign priorities and ways to address ‘Rs 400 billion’ funding gap in line with the Post-Disaster Recovery Framework 2016-2020.

The PDRF, which was prepared after Post Disaster Needs Assessment survey in 2016, has projected a total funding gap of Rs 600 billion out of the estimated requirement of Rs 938 billion, but the NRA plans to remove some ‘ambitious’ programmes in the mid-term review to save Rs 200 billion.

NRA Chief Executive Officer CEO Sushil Gyewali said some of the programmes could be run by respective ministries as regular projects. “The actual monetary requirement can be ascertained after the review which is under way,” he said.

Of the Rs 410 billion pledged by donor agencies, they have signed agreement for Rs 262 billion, said Gyewali. A total of Rs 67 billion has been spent on relief and rescue work.

So far the NRA has spent Rs 186 billion for reconstruction work, of which Rs 67 billion has come from donors, according to a report which the NRA plans to present to the Parliamentary Development Committee. The NRA had planned to present the report to the panel today, but the panel could not meet due to lack of quorum.

Gyewali added that Rs 75 billion allocated for reconstruction of the Rs 100 billion Indian soft loan could not be received due to attached conditions. He said the government would now invest the amount in other projects and provide the same amount to the NRA for reconstruction works.

“We are holding discussion with donors, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, on how to address the funding gap,” Gyewali told THT, adding that both the financial institutions had agreed to sign agreements to provide the pledged amounts.

According to him, most of the reconstruction works will happen this fiscal.  Gyewali said, “We’ll provide housing grant (Rs 300,000) on the recommendation of the respective local governments to those who  have been living on unregistered land since generations to build house on the same plot or other plots identified by the local government.” NRA has already approved preliminary plan of developing 29 integrated settlements.

“We’ll try our best to address the financial gap,” Gyewali said, adding that the reconstruction fund could be spent as per the NRA steering committee’s decision.

Reconstruction status

Total beneficiaries enrolled

812,161

Total agreements signed

732,771

First tranche recipients

726,333

Second tranche recipients

518,055

Third tranche recipients

319,669

Houses completed

315,897

Source: NRA