Only 18,000 families constructed their houses

Kathmandu, Apr. 14: Even as the government continues with its damage survey in some of the districts hit by the Gorkha Earthquake, more than 18,300 families have completed the construction of their homes.

 According to the latest statistics of 14 severely hit districts, including the Kathmandu Valley, published by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), 18,366 families have constructed their homes themselves and 3,490 houses have been approved as following the earthquake building guidelines and, thus, eligible for the third tranche of the reconstruction grant of Rs. 100,000.

But only 524 households from seven districts – Sindhupalchowk, Dhading, Kavrepalanchowk, Nuwakot, Dolakha, Ramechhap, Okhaldhunga and Rasuwa – were approved for the third installment of the grant while no house completion was reported in Gorkha and Makawanpur districts.

The approval process for the beneficiaries is so slow that of the 32,911 families that had applied for the second installment of the grant of Rs. 150,000, only about 12,650 of them were identified as being eligible for it.

However, the Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, Dr. Govinda Raj Pokharel, said that the number of houses under construction was based on the data created on the basis of the information provided to the reconstruction body by the quake-hit families.

"The real number is higher than that. More work has been done in the field, and I have observed it myself. The updated number will be published in a couple of weeks," he said.

"As many as 49,000 quake-hit families have begun building houses in the 14 severely-hit districts. About 7,103 houses are under construction in Sindhupalchowk. Other districts seeing a high number of houses being constructed are Dolakha, Kavrepalanchowk, Dhading, Gorkha and Okhaldhunga," said the NRA.

Only 1,566 families have applied for the third installment of the grant.

Engineers deployed in the quake-hit areas said that most of the families were residing in temporary shelters made out of with wood, stones and iron sheets. Therefore, although they received the first installment of the grant money, they were waiting for a suitable time to rebuild their homes.

Some of the families are waiting for their senior male members who are abroad to return before building their homes.  

The reconstruction body had identified 626,695 families from the 14 districts as eligible for the grant. But, so far it has signed the house reconstruction agreement with about 557,461 households, while the first tranche of the grant was deposited in the bank accounts of 545,000 families.

Dr. Pokharel said that the grant agreement couldn’t be signed with those families who were landless or staying on public land like jungle, riverside or the like.

Quake-hit families that are listed by the government as beneficiaries are entitled to a Rs. 300,000 grant to build their homes. But they have to complete the construction of their houses to the given level in order to receive the next tranche of the grant.