Officials hope more schools will be rebuilt soon

Kathmandu, Oct. 22: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) on Sunday said that reconstruction of about 2,456 quake-damaged educational institutions had been completed, and 1,286 were under construction.

The Gorkha Earthquake 2015 had inflicted huge damage to educational infrastructure - 8,923 educational institutions were destroyed and damaged.

“The pace of construction has increased. We are hopeful that more schools will be rebuilt in the near future,” said Im Narayan Shrestha, chief of the Central Project Implementation Unit at the Ministry of Education.

However, the government lacks resources to rebuild all damaged educational infrastructure.

Although the government had signed agreements with more than 160 national and international non-government organisations (NGOs), the progress in their part has been sluggish.

The Post Disaster Recovery Framework (PDRF), prepared by the National Planning Commission (NPC) in the immediate aftermath of the quake, had assessed that Rs. 347 billion would be needed for the quake-damaged educational institutions.

Likewise, the NRA statistics show that 119 health institutions are being constructed, and agreements were signed for the construction of 371 hospitals and health posts.

About 98 government buildings were constructed and 128 are under construction.

The NRA claimed that the reconstruction of houses had been expedited in the last nine months as more than 180,000 houses had been constructed or are being built.

The number of houses under construction and built reached 147,372 and 62,188 respectively by Sunday.

NRA spokesperson Yam Lal Bhoosal said that house construction picked up after the reconstruction body announced a deadline for applying for the reconstruction grant.

The beneficiaries should collect the entire grant of Rs. 300,000 in three installments by mid-July 2018.

The NRA has prepared a manual for ‘Exceptions and Reforms’ and trained technicians to inspect the houses that were built without following the quake-resistant measures and building codes to resolve the complaints and problems of such households. This has also contributed in the distribution of grant money and construction of houses.

NRA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Govinda Raj Pokharel said that more than 85,000 households in 14 severely-hit districts had obtained the second installment of the grant.

About 106,000 households have applied for the second installment, and 97,000 are eligible for the money.