Kathmandu, December 27

The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction under the Ministry of Urban Development has enacted the ‘Guideline on Approval for Operation of Earthquake Affected Buildings, 2015’.

The guideline will be applicable to construction, repair/maintenance, recovery and retrofitting of government buildings, apartments, private and government hospitals, nursing homes, schools, departmental stores, shopping malls, cinema halls, theatres and star hotels for their operation in a safe environment.

Anyone willing to obtain approval for operation of an earthquake-affected building will be required to submit an application along with a proposal, building construction permit and detailed damage assessment to the concerned district-based Division Office of DoUDBC.

Details of damage caused by earthquake, reasons thereof and credible ground to prevent damage from earthquakes in future should be clearly stated in the application.The Division Office will examine the documents to verify their authenticity before granting approval for their operation.

For the purpose of examination and verification of documents, the guideline has envisaged a three-member testing team headed by a divisional engineer for on-site inspection and supervision.

The team may rip apart or break any segment of the building as part of resilience test and recommend the Division Office to grant approval for operation of the repaired, recovered, reconstructed and retrofitted building.

The concerned building owner is obliged to ensure the safety and quality of building in the course of reconstruction and retrofitting and will have to furnish the Division Office documents related to quality assurance for monitoring.

The Division Office may carry out monitoring of the building anytime.

Only the building which has obtained building operation licence will be eligible for loan from banks and financial institution on the recommendation of the Division Office.

If the owner operates his/her building without obtaining building operation licence, the Division Office will write to the concerned Land Revenue Office and Survey Office to put the property on hold.