Kathmandu, November 14

The government will soon finalise the standards of construction materials, which were in the process of being revised by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM).

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes of April and May, the government had initiated a revision in the standards of the construction materials for earthquake-resilient infrastructure.

“New standards for the construction materials are in the last leg,” said Bishwo Babu

Pudasaini, director general of NBSM. After enforcement of the revised standards, manufacturers of construction materials will have to meet all the standards as fixed by NBSM to get the Nepal Standards (NS) certification.

NS is mandatory in some of the construction materials namely, cement, steel and iron rods, corrugated galvanised iron sheets and PVC wire. NBSM is all set to introduce new standards for them, according to Pudasaini.

Earlier, NBSM had said that it will set standards for all kinds of construction materials like bricks, aggregates and sand, among others, and enforce NS certification mandatorily. However, due to lack of human resources to monitor the quality of materials like bricks, aggregates and sand, NBSM will let the manufacturers comply with the standards voluntarily for now.

“We will set the standards for all kinds of construction materials, but we will offer the manufacturers of bricks, aggregates and sand, among others, to voluntarily comply with the standards set by NBSM,” he said.

NBSM had also provided support to the Department of Urban Development and the Building Construction under the Ministry of Urban Development to revise building code, which was recently approved by government.