KATHMANDU: A total of 61.9-km stretch of five earthquake damaged rural roads have been reconstructed in the last four years, said the Central Project Implementation Unit (Grants Management and Local Infrastructure).

Telkot-Ghattedanda (7.6-km) of Bhaktapur, Thaiba-Godamchaur (2.6-km) of Lalitpur, Khopasi-Dungakharka (14-km) of Kavrepalanchowk, Sunkhani-Sangba (27.4-km) of Dolakha, and Sankhu-Paluwari-Nagarkot (10.1-km) have been reconstructed.

According to Amrit Shrestha, project deputy director and senior divisional engineer, the Asian Development Bank had provided concessional loan for the rebuilding of all five roads.

ADB has extended its financial assistance for the reconstruction of 12 additional road projects which were damaged by the earthquake in 2015.

Works are underway to complete 301 kilometres of 12 road projects within the current fiscal year. He further informed that the government would reconstruct 24 other earthquake-ravaged road projects on its own.

It may be noted that the Gorkha Earthquake had caused damages to 1,051-km stretch of 83 rural roads. The reconstruction of the 707-km road of 38 projects is underway, according to the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA). Manohar Ghimire, the associate spokesperson of the NRA, shared that the reconstruction works of 316-km of quake-damaged 42 roads are yet to begin.

NRA has set its target to rebuild 60 percent of the quake-ravaged roads in the current fiscal year. It was shared that total 80 percent reconstruction would be completed by the end of the fiscal year 2019-20 and remaining within the fiscal 2020-21.

Currently, reconstruction of road is underway in 21 quake-devastated districts.